LBI cricket facility should be best in the region

Mar 30, 2010 Sports

Indoor nets and hostel to be opened in two weeks

By Sean Devers

I had my first tour of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) indoor practice nets and hostel yesterday and despite the controversy surrounding the East Coast facility it should be the best of its kind in the Caribbean when it is fully completed next month.
A senior GCB official said the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) wrote the Board yesterday to inform that they would be connecting the electrical power to the building today and feels an article in yesterday Kaieteur Sports blaming GPL for the delay of the opening of the facility might have helped.
A concern from a section of the GCB was the additional $10 Million paid to the Contractor for what they said was the renovation of the Kitchen.
However it was revealed that $10,730,015, which was payable in two installments, was not only for the extension of the Kitchen but also for a dining area, a 225’x16’x4″ concrete floor and a 440’x6’ chain link fence on the Eastern and Southern sides of the Hostel.
It was also explained that the contractor build each room with a built-in wardrobe and the $720,000 paid for beds was for twenty-eight 36’wide x 84’ long single beds and four 60’ wide by 84’ long Queen size beds.
“While $720, 000 for beds sounds a lot it must be mentioned that each of the single beds cost $22,000 and the Queen sized beds cost $26,000.
This is really cheap when you look at the normal cost for the beds.
The same contractor was given the job not only because of the price but also he promised to make matching beds to the wardrobe he had already made for each room,” the GCB official disclosed.
Comparing the LBI facility to any other of its kind in the region, the Guyana indoor nets and Hotel is superior and has a longer bowler’s run-up than the one in Couva, Trinidad which is the most comparable of the others to the one here.
The cost for constructing the fence, which has a concrete base, is $2,125,540 while the cost for the concrete floor was $1,797,700.
This means that the Kitchen and dining room cost $6,806,775 and not 10 million for the extension of the Kitchen alone as was suggested by some GCB members.
Negotiations are ongoing for the entire ground, which is controlled by GUYSUCO, to be handed over to the GCB while plans are on stream to resurface the ground for the staging of GCB matches.
Water has already been connected and with electrical power expected to be connected this week, the players involved in the Women’s Senior Inter County tournament which commences on April 11, should be accommodated at the Hostel which can house 32 persons.
The indoor nets and special carpet on the concrete surface to practice on should be installed by next week and with high power lights to replace the florescent ones in the ‘nets’ area, players can practice during the night with the GCB having the option of charging a small rent for teams to use the indoor nets after work when it is not being used by national players.
President of the Guyana Cricket Board Chetram Singh, who is recovering well from illness in the USA, is expected home soon and should be present for the official opening of the facility.
Singh is in his final term as GCB President and said on his re-election that a successful staging of Guyana’s leg of the T20 World Cup matches and the completion of the Indoor Nets and Hostel are the two main things he wants to see before his tenure as GCB boss ends.
The GCB, which is being rocked by internal problems among two factions of its executives, is expected to hold a press conference on the LBI facility shortly.

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LBI cricket facility should be best in the region

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