Sport Minister piloting project for major cricket ground enhancement

By Akeem Greene

Sport Minister Charles Ramson Jr. has revealed that the administration is in the research phase of a pilot project, which is aimed at developing all-weather facilities at cricket grounds in the country. The Minister made this revelation during a recent community outreach.

Apart from the National Stadium, Providence, and now La Bonne Intention Community Centre ground, East Coast Demerara, there are not many other grounds in Guyana that can host cricket during the rainy season.

The Minister wants to change such and is currently on a fact-finding mission to see how best the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport, through partnerships, can enhance some cricket grounds in Guyana.

“A lot of these grounds play cricket and it is important for me that these grounds get to a level where they can play cricket on a consistent basis, whether it is the rainy season, dry season, and that when rain falls shortly after you will still be able to play cricket,” the Minister stated at the Tuschen Sports Club during a community outreach on Saturday.

“We are currently doing the research so that we can build those types of grounds. In the coming year, I am going to be work with one of the regional bodies so we can have a pilot project so that once these innovative ideas are implemented we can see if it works and if it works, it can be extended to all of the other grounds.”

Additionally, the Minister felt the need to have community grounds which not only offer the area for sport activities, but a chance for families to engage in leisure activities or exercise purposes.

“Not every ground wants to or needs to play cricket [and] that’s an important point. These are community grounds and community centres, some of the grounds that you have, people want to go and take their families for leisure activities or exercise. The Ministry is going to be engaging with the regional bodies to identify grounds for which we can use as public parks. We will still have cricket grounds.”

At all of his engagements, the Minister was resolute on the need for the development of partnerships in order to sustain the facilities.

The Minister promised to partner with the relevant authorities to see how best the Ministry can get those facilities back to a respectable state.