Stadium ready for Friday’s game

Nov 08, 2016 Sports

Resurfaced pitches to be used next year

By Sean Devers
Head Curator at the Guyana National Stadium Wazim Habib assured that everything

The pitch on which Guyana will play Jamaica at Providence from Friday.

will be ready for Friday’s Four-day match between Guyana and Jamaica which starts the 2016/2017 Professional Cricket League (PCL) First-Class season.
Four of the six pitches on the ‘square’ were dug-up in mid August and the ‘old soil’ was replaced with soil from Enterprise with higher clay content and the foundation changed. However, these pitches will not be ready for use until the second half of the season next year.
The pitch to the most Eastern side and the one to the most Western side of Providence were not touched and Friday’s encounter will be played on the Eastern one which was being prepared when Kaieteur Sport visited the Stadium yesterday.
According to Habib the grass on the four middle pitches is being cut and leveling and rolling will take place in the coming days preceding this weekend’s match.
The match pitch had some grass rolled into it and Habib informed the grass will remain on the pitch for the match. In the past this pitch was the best for batting despite being on the slow side and it is expected to play in the same way as it always did.
The Providence outfield is bone dry and lightening fast and will be watered over the next two days. Guyana face Barbados in the first ever day/night First-Class match in Guyana from December 9 before playing there last home game for 2016 against Trinidad & Tobago from December 16.
The soil for the original ‘square’ was sourced from Mahaica which is predominantly a rice producing area on the East Coast of Demerara and it is felt that Chemicals used in the Rice industry contributed to the poor quality of the soil.

Head Curator Wasim Habib mows the resurfaced square at Providence.

It is also believed that high stand content of the ground makes it arguable the fastest drying International cricket ground in the World but that has also contributed to low and slow nature of the Providence pitches over the years.
However, the practice pitches at the back of the ground received several compliments from International batsmen who batted on the pitches which had truer pace, bounce and carry than the ones on the ground.
According to Habib, tasked with preparing the ‘nets’ pitches, the foundation of the six ‘match’ pitches has five inches of sand, while the ones at the back has no sand base.
“There are six pitches on the square here but we only relayed the four in the middle where the TV cameras focus on and that are mainly used for International games. We are replacing the five inches of sand in the foundation of the square with five inches of Crush & Run (small stones that are used for road foundation) and then put eight inches of soil on that,” Habib explained.
Stadium Manager Anthony Xavier said that the approximate cost to relay the pitches and to transport the soil to the Stadium from East Coast was $3Million.

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