World 100m record-holder Asafa Powell and West Indies cricketer Chris Gayle will be featured on Extra Time, a half-hour television interview programme on the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) World Service, which focuses on international sporting personalities.

A five-man BBC crew, headed by host Rob Bonnet, arrived in the island yesterday and filmed Powell running the first leg of the 4x100 Institution Men's relay at the 31st Gibson Relays at the National Stadium.

Powell will do a sit down interview for the 30-minute programme tomorrow, while all-rounder Gayle, a member of the West Indies World Cup squad, will be interviewed by the British media today.

The BBC crew arrived from Barbados where they interviewed veteran cricket commentator Tony Cozier on aspects of the game and will head to Antigua on Tuesday where they will do a similar feature on West Indies cricketing great Sir Vivian Richards.
The features are part of the build-up to the ICC Cricket World Cup, which begins on March 11. Teams are scheduled to start arriving in Jamaica as early as Thursday.

Bonnet, who has worked with the BBC as a sports journalist since 1978, told the Sunday Observer he has never before seen the kind of atmosphere - that was on display at the Gibson Relays - at a high school athletics meeting anywhere in the world.

"I had no idea there was that kind of joy for running itself," Bonnet said. "You don't get this kind of enthusiasm in the UK. It's a fabulous setting."
Bonnet, who has interviewed the likes of New Zealand cricket legend Sir Richard Hadlee, former Australia cricket captain Steve Waugh and tennis great Pete Sampras, said Powell was rated among the best.
"Powell is right up there on the 'A' list," the Brit told the Sunday Observer.

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