Hockey in Guyana faces an uncertain future due to a shortage of hockey grounds and unless this situation is urgently addressed it could be the demise of a sport that brought glory to this country over the years.
Secretary of the Guyana Hockey Board (GHB) Gregory Sills highlighted the board’s plight of being unable to run off matches at all levels due to the unavailability of regular hockey venues, which in the past was accommodated despite being cricket grounds.
Georgetown Cricket Club, Everest Cricket, Police Sports Club, Demerara Cricket Club, Uitvlugt Community Centre ground were all regular hockey venues and, according to Sills, letters were sent to the administration of a few of these clubs but the responses were lukewarm.
The board had in the past relied heavily on the clubs to facilitate matches; in fact some of the clubs had hockey teams so it was easier for the hockey administration to secure approval.
Things have changed and at present only GCC has an active hockey section from the clubs mentioned earlier.
With the forthcoming Digicel cricket matches between West Indies and Pakistan in a few weeks time, these venues have been booked up for practice matches and training or net sessions for the visiting teams which will further compound the GHB’s woes.
Since the late 1980’s the International Hockey Federation (FIH) had mandated that all international outdoor tournaments must be played on artificial surfaces but due to financial constraints the GHB was unable to pursue the laying of an artificial pitch or construct a hockey centre similar to other hockey playing countries in the Caribbean and around the world.
Guyana is now unable to host international outdoor matches due to the lack of an artificial pitch, a major setback for the sport’s development locally due to the FIH’s directive.
This has the country lagging behind the rest of the Caribbean countries like Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados and Jamaica who have moved considerably ahead of their Guyanese counterparts since they have acquired artificial pitches.
Local hockey players have had to travel to Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados to practice on these pitches in preparation for international tournaments, a very costly exercise.
A few years ago, the Board embarked on staging an international indoor hockey tournament at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall to bring back international competition to locally.
Although the Sports Hall did not meet all international requirements, clubs from Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, United States and Canada had participated in the Diamond Mineral Water indoor Festival until 2009. However, last year renovation work was done to the playing surface at the venue which left the court with an uneven bounce, an impending danger to players.
Last year’s Festival was cancelled and GHB president Philip Fernandes did indicate that the board would be working closely with the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport to have the problem remedied.
Fernandes recently disclosed that the board was in discussion with the Ministry of Sport to secure a plot of land to construct a hockey centre.
An area close to the National Stadium at Providence was identified and according Sills the Board has since written to the Minister of Sport Dr. Frank Anthony to get a commitment from his Ministry so that the board can move to the next step of acquiring funding for the project.
The process needs to be fast track to enable the board to push for the construction of the venue in light of these recent developments.
The Ministry of Sport has come to the assistance of squash, tennis, swimming and athletics with building sports facilities and it is imperative that the Ministry looks at the plight currently facing hockey.
The minister and the board must now work swiftly to move the process forward because now more than ever local hockey needs an artificial pitch, if this is not done then the sport could face certain demise.
Now more than ever hockey needs a home.
