Eight years and still Stadium stands unnamed

Apr 12, 2015 Sports

Next Government should do so

By Sean Devers
The Guyana National Stadium at Providence on the East Bank of Demerara was completed for the 2007

Reds Perriera

Cricket World Cup and it has been eight long years since the Stadium host its first International game in the World Cup match on March 28, 2007 when South Africa battled Sri Lanka.
Guyana is one of the few Countries in the West Indies that has an International Cricket venue without names of past Players, Administrators or Journalists on its stands.
In Jamaica there is the George Headley stand, in Trinidad & Tobago there is the Brian Lara Pavilion, in Barbados there is the 3Ws stand, honoring Clyde Wallcott, Everton Weeks and Sir Frank Worrell, arguable the best West Indies Captain of all time. Even in small Islands like Antigua, the entire venue is named after its most famous Cricketer; Sir Vivian Richards, while in Dominica International Umpire Billy Doctrove’s name adorns one of the stands there.
Guyana has produced 48 Test cricketers since Maurice Fernandes became the first in the inaugural Test match against England in 1928 in addition to several other persons who have made outstanding contributions to the development of Guyana’s cricket over the years and it is time our cricketing stalwarts are honored by naming the stands at Providence after the most illustrious of the lot.
This present Government shows little interest in honoring our former Cricketers (or other sports personalities for that matter) in any meaningful way and in the year 2015 the powers that be, still refers to stands at Guyana’s only International Cricket venue as ‘Red Stand, Green Stand, Orange Stand and Grass Mound.
When doing commentary in Barbados you would say “in comes ‘whoever’ from the Joel Garner end” or

Clive Lloyd

when in Jamaica ‘whoever’ moves in smoothly from the Michael Holding end” but at Providence you are unable to attach any names to the two ends which could of course be used to promote Guyana in a positive light by letting the millions listening know that ‘so and so’ is from the land of many waters.
The stadium was built by the Government of Guyana with substantial financial assistance thought a grant and a loan from the Government of India. The Stadium was designed by C.R. Narayana Rao (CRN Architects & Engineers) and constructed by Shapoorji Pallonji Group.
However, the 2005 floods slowed site preparation, and delayed the start of construction, which began in May 2005. Construction costs are estimated at $25,000,000 US.
Seating 15,000 people, the Providence Stadium is the largest sports arena in Guyana and now hosts test cricket instead of Bourda in the City.
The Providence Stadium has also hosted other International Sports like football and Rugby sevens. The opening and closing ceremonies of Carifesta10 were also hosted there as well several Super Concerts.
At the time of writing this article, the manifestoes of the political parties had not yet been released to the public so I have not been able to see what the contesting Parties intend to do for sports if they are elected to Government at the May 11 General Elections.
However, it is hoped that one of the tasks of the next Government in their first 100 days in Office is to

Shiv Chanderpaul

honor those who have given outstanding contributions to cricket in Guyana by having their names affixed to the Stands at the Providence Stadium.
As I wrote a few years ago when I featured Joseph ‘Reds’ Perrier as a special person in this newspaper, the Media Center should the named the Reds Perrier Media Centre while players like Rohan Kanhai, Roy Fredericks, Clive Lloyd and Shiv Chanderpaul could replace the RED, GREEN, ORANGE Stand and the GRASS MOUND. Colin Croft and Lance Gibbs’ names should be at the two ends to inspire those bowling from those ends.