(Trinidad Express) Patrons attending the regional four-day match between Trinidad and Tobago and the Windward Islands would have noticed a piece of Queen’s Park Oval history gone missing–the Sir Errol Dos Santos Stand is no more.
The stand, part of the Oval landscape since the 1960s, is in the process of being demolished by the Queen’s Park Cricket Club because of an unsound structure.
“Three years ago, the Fire Service expressed concern about the stand’s integrity,” club president Bruce Aanensen told the Express yesterday.
Engineers were then consulted, but Aanensen said: “Last year, the engineers came in again and said the stand had further deteriorated. They recommended demolishing the stand. They did some additional work which got it passed for occupancy.”
However, late last year, a further red flag appeared during an event at the Oval in which a single slab of concrete beneath the stand fell off the structure.
Noted Aanensen: “The stand is 47 years old and the integrity of the stand was at serious risk. ”
He said the engineers were “concerned about parts of the stand buried in the ground” so the experts’ advice to demolish was taken.
According to Aanensen, what will replace the Dos Santos has not yet been decided.
The QPCC president assured, however, that the absent stand will not affect the ground’s hosting of the Second Test between West Indies and Australia in April.
“What we put in its place is up for grabs. We are looking at several different options,” he said.
Aanensen also confirmed the West Indies Cricket Board has been informed about the situation.
“We haven’t had any expressed concerns by them. If they feel they need additional accommodation, you can put up some temporary bleachers. I don’t anticipate that will be an issue at all.
“The West Indies Cricket Board are only losing 2,400 seats. The likelihood of them needing those for the Australia tour is very doubtful,” he said, adding: “All we have is a Test match and we don’t see that they will need more than the 15-16,000 seats available. We feel that will be sufficient accommodation for the people who will come for the Test match. We feel comfortable that we have a year to decide what to do.”
