Sports administrators over the years had been calling for a multi-purpose stadium in Guyana but those calls had fallen on deaf ears until recently when this country was successful in its bid to host matches in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007.
- FALLING FENCE! This picture says it all. The fence at the Georgetown Football Club ground, venue of many an international sports event in the past, is being propped up by wooden planks.
The Guyana National Stadium at Providence was constructed primarily as a cricket stadium with the help of the Indian government and now it is rapidly becoming a multi-purpose venue.
Initial comments by government officials about the uses of the stadium for the purpose of cricket had placed a damper on other sports disciplines.
In fact when Guyana was gearing up to participate in the 2010 World Cup football qualifier last year, there had been initial rejection to the use of the facility for football citing damage to the cricket pitch.
Permission was eventually given and the rest is now history.
Since then the stadium has hosted games in the Digicel Caribbean Cup preliminary competition, the Alpha United Carifesta X football final, the NAMILCO football decider and most recently, matches in the Kashif and Shanghai football tournament including the final.
Not only has the pitch held up well but the outfield could be regarded as one of the fastest draining in the Caribbean region after being tested recently by the incessant rainy weather.
- NO DEVELOPMENT! This building above once known as the National Sports Development Council Centre (NSDC) has been this way for years. In the past sports teams used to be encamped there.
In two months time Guyana will host two One Day international fixtures between West Indies and England and once again the stadium will be the show piece.
The introduction of lighting at the stadium was a positive move because more events could take place in the evenings and with this country earmarked to host matches in the ICC Twenty/20 tournament next year, again Providence will be the venue of choice.
While we look forward with excitement to witnessing our favourite sport at the stadium several prominent sports venues have fallen on hard times and have almost reached a state of being derelict.
Three immediately come to mind, Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC) ground, Bourda with over 150 years of service to Guyana and the world, its adjacent partner Georgetown Football Club (GFC) and the Mackenzie Sports Club (MSC) in Linden.
For two years now the GCC and GFC have been cast out of limelight and therefore unable to generate the necessary revenue for their upkeep.
The woes have been further compounded by the fact that they are in a low-lining section of Georgetown that flood easily and with the capital experiencing serious drainage problems the situation at the two grounds are further aggraurated.
Administrators of the two clubs in the past were guilty of being very insensitive to organizers and patrons alike who were denied access at the sprinkling of rain.
- GOING, GOING! Sections of the Georgetown Cricket Club on North Road and New Garden Street show clearly the deterioration of that facility which no longer stages test matches since the advent of the Providence National Stadium.
Now, however, they would most likely welcome any form of entertainment to raise money for the upkeep of the venues.
The Bourda sward was the venue for many cricket matches even before the sport received international recognition, while GFC was utilized for the Georgetown premier football tournament as well as international football and hockey matches in the past.
GFC was dealt a further blow recently when the Georgetown Football Association (GFA) switched their competition matches to the Tucville Playfield.
MSC on the other hand played host to the now famous Kashif and Shanghai (K&S) football final for the past 18 years until the organizers of the event expressed disgust at the state of the venue and decided to pull the plug last year.
During the presentation of the Kashif and Shanghai competition, director Kashif Muhammad expressed disappointment at the state of playing fields around the country.
The state of these venues should be of grave concern to every health and sports conscious Guyanese and leaving them to deteriorate would be very unfortunate.
The MSC, the main venue in the mining town of Linden has produced some of the country’s leading sportsmen and sportswomen and should be rehabilitated while GCC and GFC should be viable alternatives to the Stadium at Providence.
While all three facilities are structured as membership clubs unless they receive urgent financing from government and other stakeholders their demise will come sooner rather than later because subscription alone cannot sustain their future upkeep.
Major rehabilitation work should be done urgently to GCC and GFC to fill the void left by earlier plans for a multi-purpose sports complex at the D’urban Park that no longer seems a viable project.
We have seen investments in other sectors of our society by the government as well as public and private sectors but investing in the future of these facilities would be an investment in the health, social wellbeing and sports in Guyana.