Latest update October 18th, 2024 12:59 AM
Feb 15, 2009 Editorial
Cricket is the glue that holds the West Indies together. Forget CariCom (which is derided as “CariGone by the masses); forget the CSME, the acronym of which the vast majority of West Indians would be hard pressed to decipher. It is cricket, lovely cricket, first and last. And just when our team’s dramatic win in Jamaica lifted all of us up from the drudgery of our everyday lives into a state of euphoria, the fiasco of Antigua had to be allowed to happen.
And “allowed” is the operative word. Cricket may be “a game of glorious uncertainties,” but that appellation was never intended to be applied to its administration and management. Professionalism ought to be the watchword. The sand of the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium (SVRS) in Antigua did not just happen – it has been developing longer than it took to make the movie, “The Sands of Iwo Jima”.
Two years ago, during the World Cup, the problems were swept under the (scanty) grass even though several matches were disrupted. Each year, those in authority promised to rectify the problems, but somehow contrived to make it even worse.
Passing the buck among the Government, the local board and the WICB became the norm, as it has been throughout the far-flung territories. Dominated by individuals who had only, at best, a passing acquaintance with the game of cricket, their eyes were relentlessly fixed on the lure of the big bucks.
It was, and remains, criminal that the second Test match between England and the West Indies could have been scheduled for play at the SVRS. The President of the WICB has accepted responsibility for the fiasco of Antigua. We hope that Michael Holding’s prediction that nothing will come out of the humiliation that the entire region faced will be proven false. Heads should roll; but we should not hold our breath.
What we in Guyana should do, however, is to get our own house in order ahead of the start of the One Day Internationals that have been scheduled at our Providence Stadium. Before Antigua, Guyana had been the traditional ‘whipping boy’ of WI cricket when it came to cricketing facilities. The Government, at very great expense and under severe constraints of time and the sourcing of suddenly scarce construction materials, completed the Providence Stadium to the satisfaction of the ICC, so that we could successfully host our World Cup games.
This was all to the good. But there were some unfinished businesses that were seized upon by critics to pillory our efforts. Those critics will once again be waiting in the wings – especially after Antigua. Let us not provide them with free ammunition. Firstly, there was the matter of incomplete practice facilities for two teams to utilise simultaneously.
Some teams had to be shunted to Bourda. What is the present status of practice facilities at the Stadium? If Bourda is to be used once again, what is the condition of that facility?
Then, of course, there was the fiasco of our non-existent parking facilities. With all that we may want to muster as Guyanese pride, we will have to accept that, in a country where we can count with the utmost confidence on rain whenever cricket is scheduled, it would appear that we have been penny wise and pound foolish in not to have asphalted both the parking facilities in the Stadium compound and the one on the northern side in the intervening two years after the World Cup.
Red mud just would not cut it once again. We still have time to overcome this oversight, but just barely. The resources will have to be mobilised immediately. The Stadium Manager has indicated that the parking facilities within the stadium compound will be asphalted. We applaud this move, but urge that this be extended to the northern one also.
Important as cricket is to our country and our region, we have an opportunity to demonstrate to the wider world that we, too, can live up to our commitment to improve our standards to internationally accepted levels.
As we hope with the WI team’s last performance, let this be a harbinger of great things to come.
October 1st turn off your lights to bring about a change!
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