For example, Mickey Mouse is not thought of as a rat but instead has his own identity as a friendly, helpful and entertaining cartoon character, and is of course a flagship character of Disneyworld. No one conjures the often very negative images of rats when one thinks of the lovable Mickey Mouse, least of all kids. It would have been ideal to use an existing cartoon character such as Mickey Mouse or even Jiminy Cricket, to attract kids to the sport and promote the WICB kids programmes. However, international copyright laws prohibit WICB from using characters currently existing. WICB has therefore opted to develop its own set of characters of which Clarence is the first.
Clarence is neither the team mascot, nor a mascot or symbol representing West Indies cricket.
He is simply a cartoon character being developed by WICB to galvanize the kids marketing and development programme. Even as a cartoon character however, Clarence will of course be a big fan of West Indies cricket and the team, and his exploits will certainly reflect his bias. The marketing programme for Clarence will invite kids to make suggestions and develop other characters to share in The Adventures of Clarence the cricketing Crab a syndicated comic strip and storybook line in the making. The intention is to attract kids into looking at the television screen while the cricket is on. By exposing them to the game initially in this way, WICB hopes to encourage their future participation as players or fans.