GROUND staff worked a miracle in making ready a seemingly unplayable Bourda ground for Sunday’s first Cable & Wireless One-Day International (ODI), according to president of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) Chetram Singh.
In an appreciation luncheon at the Georgetown Cricket Club, yesterday, Singh hailed the work done by the ground staff that saw the conversion of a ground that looked unplayable some two days before the match between West Indies and England at Bourda, as nothing less than a miracle.
The GCB hosted the luncheon in appreciation for the tremendous effort by the ground staff to make play possible in Sunday’s match.
Singh said that he and other GCB officials had expected that even if the sun had come out on Sunday, the earliest that the match could have been played was Monday, an alternate day for possible rain.
He disclosed that the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and sponsors Cable & Wireless had already made arrangements to refund tickets as soon as Monday, because they, along with some of England’s officials and the foreign media present, thought it impossible for cricket to be played at the Bourda ground.
Singh said that he had to oversee the entire operation as president of the board, with “great” assistance from a number of companies and individuals whom he thanked.
The Guyana Agricultural Workers Union (GAWU), Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T), the Jairam brothers and Geoff Fraser donated a pump for draining water from the ground.
Singh said that Ainlim and T. Geddes Grant assisted by loaning two tractors while the Guyana Defence Force assisted with the use of their helicopter.
The head of the ground staff, Culdip Harrichan, who led his team to accomplish the Herculean task of getting the ground in a fit state, told Chronicle Sport his workers worked from early in the morning to late into the night on Friday and Saturday, while on Sunday they reached the ground to start preparation at 04:00 hrs.
GCB Public Relations Officer, Terry Holder, said that fixing the ground made Guyanese happy because the first one-day match is the only match for Guyana for 2004, even though they saw the West Indies losing the thriller. (Faizool Deo)