History was created on Wednesday night when Minister of Human Services and Social Security, Dr. Vindhya Persaud flicked the switch for the floodlights at the La Bonne Intention Cricket Ground for the first time.
The pitch-black night sky on the East Coast of Demerara was within seconds illuminated from the heavy-duty system.
According to Secretary of the Guyana Cricket Board, Anand Sanasie, the planning for this project had dated back to over six years when Minister of Agriculture, Robert Persaud was in talks to transform the venue. However that did not materialize and only as recently as two years ago, a lease from GuySuCo allowed the plan to bowl off.
Fast forward to present day and the once abandoned ground is now set to become the second active first-class venue in Guyana.
“The LBI facility has been something the Guyana Cricket Board has been working for at least for 10 years. 10 years ago we built the hostel and practice facility towards the north western end of the ground and about six to seven years thereafter we were trying to work out an arrangement,” Sanasie stated.
It was revealed that over 1,000 truckloads of sand and another 1,000 loads of mud have already been dumped on the ground but Sanasie pointed out this was only the first stage of development. There are also plans to construct a state-of-the-art media centre and a unique practice facility with a chute to take players from the players’ pavilion to the six all-weather strips. The ground will also feature a stage since it is the traditional home of the Diwali motorcade in Demerara.
Additionally, Sanasie explained the lights were LED and are world standard which came complete with the generator system.
“This is only the first stage which is the development of the playing area which as you would recall with all the rain, is still very hard and is probably the only other ground in Demerara that can still play cricket other than the [National] Stadium,” he informed.
The Cricket West Indies director, who was hands-on with the construction of the venue related that the drainage at the facility would rival the stadium which has the reputation as the fastest drying ground in the Caribbean and has been proven over the last few weeks.
GuySuCo Chief Executive Officer, Sasenarine Singh commended the work done at the venue, particularly the excellent drainage work done.
Singh reiterated GuySuCo was responsible for monitoring the flood control system on the East Coast of Demerara and the engineers had labeled the situation as “dire” but the LBI field was dry.
The GuySuCo boss said, “I really want to learn the engineering behind that because it’s impressive, very impressive to know after such a heavy rain pour all night that the ground is dry, ready to play cricket.”
“I am happy that a group of Guyanese took a ground who unfortunately, GuySuCo was in charge of in the heydays but fell into despair when the market fell and we couldn’t upkeep it but they took it from where it was and I am impressed that it is a world-class ground,” Singh added. Meanwhile, Minister Persaud commended Sanasie for the work done at the facility and called for the community to fully embrace the resource.
The Minister noted that she would like to see maybe Tai Chi sessions on the ground, the young, the adults and the senior citizens utilizing the ground as well as women versus men matches.
“I really want to commend Anand Sanasie, as you know LBI has been the home of the Diwali motorcade for four decades, that’s a long time so we saw the good, the bad and the not so good. The last couple of years we weren’t able to use here because work was happening but when we got back here I sat a few times with Sanasie and he said we are going to put this here and that there and I said ok let’s see and we sit here tonight he had that vision and that vision materialized,” the Minister stated.
She went on to add, “if we can have a facility like this be a model for other grounds, I think the future of sports specifically cricket has an excellent journey ahead to look forward to.”
Speaker of the National Assembly and President of Everest Cricket Club, Manzoor Nadir hailed the facility, noting that “leisure is going to be a premium in Guyana.”
Nadir called for similar expansions at grounds in Berbice and Essequibo in order to grow sports on the local scene.
