(Trinidad Express) THE Brian Lara Stadium will officially open on May 13, and you could not dream up a more spectacular first competitive match on the cricket pitch.
The ground will host a game between an eleven led by Lara, with the opposing team led by another legend of the game Sachin Tendulkar.
The announcement was made at Thursday’s post Cabinet press conference at the Diplomatic Centre, St Ann’s.
The match, according to Sport Minister Darryl Smith, will be broadcast international, regionally and locally.
Tickets will be sold to the public for the event.
Smith said a fee scheme is being worked out with the Education Ministry and the academy aims to attract the best of the country and the region. Scholarships will also be offered.
The Tarouba stadium was the brainchild of the former Patrick Mannning PNM Government. Millions of dollars have been pumped into the facility over a decade.
Last year, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley pledged to complete the stadium.
The Tarouba facility, named in honour of the historic achievements of cricketing icon Brian Charles Lara, but has long been mired in controversy.
The stadium was to be one of the venues for the Cricket World Cup 2007 but was plagued by delays and cost overruns and became one of the main projects probed by the Uff Commission of Enquiry into the Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago (UDeCOTT), first called for by Rowley, who was then a PNM back-bencher.
