National Stadium, Synthetic Track to get multi-million dollar upgrades

The National Stadium at Providence, East Bank Demerara, could soon have an electronic scoreboard in keeping with the standards of modern cricket grounds around the world.

The scrutinising of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport budget estimates recently revealed that $50 million will be spent on the equipment.

Currently, there are two manual scoreboards at Guyana’s lone International Cricket Council accredited venue.

The expenses, which are part of the $450 million capital by the National Sports Commission (NSC), will also see rehabilitation to the cricket academy shed to the tune of $15M; purchase of replay cameras for cricket academy ($10M); rehabilitation to batting and bowling areas to the cost of $12M and a water hog pump priced at $3M.

September last, Minister Charles Ramson Jr., indicated that the government is developing the vast unutilised areas in the compound of the stadium to cater for football, volleyball, lawn tennis and basketball.

The football field is being built to the northern side, and a volleyball pitch adjacent to the tarmac. A tennis court will be placed near to or on the tarmac, as well as a basketball court for which he had consultations with the federation and has begun purchasing equipment.

Meanwhile, at the National Track and Field facility at Leonora, West Coast Demerara, there will be a $20M for upgrades to the track, $13M for a generator, asphalt of the parking lot ($10M) and rehabilitation of the fence ($4M) along with a water pump ($520,000).

Another big allocation will be the construction of pavilions at the synthetic tracks in Region Six and Ten to the tune of $124 million.

The aforementioned projects are just part of the sum budgeted towards the NSC as they plan to purchase numerous gears and equipment for players and coaches.

There will also be the back-filling of the drains at Burnham Park, New Amsterdam ($6M) and rehabilitation works to the Andrew ‘Six Head’ Lewis Boxing Gym in Albouystown ($10M), along with the $15 million refurbishment of the pool in Kwakwani (Region Ten).

Out of this year’s $552.9 billion budget, the sport sector has been allocated $3.15 billion with a capital of $2.4 billion.