The Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport must lead the way

Oct 02, 2008 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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Today, I want to use the capital city as an example to demonstrate to the Director of Sport, Mr. Neil Kumar, that contrary to what he is saying, there is a glaring shortage of playfields and parks throughout the country.

Yesterday, I expressed disappointment at the government’s decision to privatise a playfield opposite the United States Embassy instead of opening this facility to the residents of Kingston and North Cummingsburg, who do not have community playgrounds.

In fact, if you go through all the wards of the city, you will find a notable absence of such facilities. For example, in Queenstown there is no community playfield.

The Demerara Cricket Club which is located within that ward is a private club. In neighbouring Alberttown, there is no playground.

Thus, residents of these areas have nowhere within their community to develop their sporting ability or even to have some recreation, save and except the Merriman Mall, a large portion of which has been covered with asphalt since it was being prepared for a vendors’ mall.

Another section of that narrow strip, opposite where former President Desmond Hoyte lived, used to provide facilities for kids to play but that has run into disrepair and further east, there is a large wall in place in one section and another section is being used to store materials for the new Queenstown mosque.

I am sure that Mr. Neil Kumar can obtain the total number of persons residing in the Alberttown- Queenstown area and I am sure that he will concede that there is no other option than for those persons to head way up to the National Park if they wanted the use of a large field.

Further south in Georgetown, the situation is no better. In fact in Wortmanville, where Uncle Freddie claims he grew up, there is only one narrow ground next to the Ministry of Health on Brickdam.

Wortmanville and Lodge are two large and densely populated communities and yet for decades D’Urban Park has been off limits because of neglect.

Despite some $90 million being allocated to improve this area in 2006, the park is still a jungle. It does not get any better. It is the same thing throughout the country.

The Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport can believe whatever it wishes, but the reality is that there is a glaring lack of playfields in Guyana and many of the existing playfields are in a state of neglect or are being operated by private clubs.

The government will be unable to effectively manage the existing playfields which require a fair sum to be kept in fair condition each year.

It will cost billions of dollars each year to maintain playfields and parks to the required standards and the government simply does not have this type of money.
As such, the support of communities is needed.

What is required is for all the playfields that are not private clubs to be placed under the management of communities with strict guidelines that they are intended to be used by the community and not to profit vested interests within communities.

Management committees should be established to oversee and look after these grounds, and in some instances, school grounds should after hours be made available to the community on a controlled basis.

In addition, the Ministry should work with some of the private clubs to ensure that programmes are established, which would allow the members of the community to benefit.

Years ago, three cricket leagues were held in Demerara. These were the Case, Wight and Northcote Cups. Every weekend you could pass by the main grounds in the city and witness matches being played in all three competitions.

A great many of the Wight Cup matches used to be played at the Queen’s College Ground which sported three pitches. Today, that ground does not have a single pitch.

Also, what used to be the Guyana Sports Club ground, a facility which in the past was large enough to be able to be used for cycling meetings, is now a football field even though there is the space there for both a cricket and football field.

The Cosmos Sports Club, which at one time played first division cricket in Guyana, has now quite ingeniously been converted into a go-cart track. And the most explicable one of course was the granting of permission for a school to be built on Carifesta Avenue where there used to be a sports club.

But the most bizarre was the decision some years ago of the Ministry of Education to build a school on what used to be a play ground in Woolford Avenue.

If we are therefore serious about allowing our young athletes to gain exposure, we have to ensure that there are facilities available. Five hundred million dollars was budgeted for Carifesta X.

What is needed to improve the playfields in Guyana is not so much money, as is resourcefulness and initiative. And in this regard, the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport must lead the way.

There are persons who are getting into sports to make a name. There are others who have already made a name for themselves and who are being kept out of sports.

I, for one, believe that if tomorrow the government calls the publisher of this newspaper, Glenn Lall, and asks him to go around this country and ensure that playfields are developed for our children, he would do it, and do it free of cost. More importantly, he will bring results.

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