Miracle workers! Members of the Georgetown Cricket Club ground staff take time out from their luncheon yesterday to strike a pose with Guyana Cricket Board president Chetram Singh (seventh left) at the GCC pavilion. Chief groundsman Culdip Harrichand is s
The Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC) ground staff were rewarded with a luncheon for their hard work in ensuring the first Cable and Wireless One-Day International (ODI) cricket match between West Indies and England was played on Sunday.
The 17 ground staff, headed by chief groundsman Culdip Harrichand, were treated to a sumptuous lunch at the GCC pavilion, compliments of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB).
Addressing members of the media and the ground staff, GCB President Chetram Singh thanked the ground staff for ensuring the first ODI was played, though it was reduced to 30 overs.
"A lot of us said Monday maybe a possibility, but with the hard work of the ground staff, the game was possible on Sunday," Singh said, adding: "They worked really hard even into the night on Friday and Saturday to ensure play was possible on Sunday."
According to Singh, the ground staff along with members of the GCC started working from 4 am on Sunday so that the game could have been played on Sunday.
"I think Guyana, the West Indies, England and the world of cricket lovers are proud of them," Singh said.
GCB executive member Terry Holder, thanking the groundsmen for a job well done, referred to them as miracle workers. "Thanks to the persons who performed the miracle in transforming the pool of water into dry land on Sunday," Holder said.
Holder added that persons who saw what Bourda looked like on Friday after the early morning rainstorm that left Georgetown and its environs flooded, would not have believed that there would have been any cricket on Sunday.
"It was the wish of the GCB to get the game off on Sunday and I agree with Terry [Holder]; it was indeed a miracle. Several foreign journalists, as well as England's captain Michael Vaughn, were in doubt as to whether there would have been any play on Sunday," Singh said.
He said arrangements were already in place to refund monies to patrons if the game was not played. He pointed out that the West Indies Board and Scotia Bank had already put such systems in place. "So sure were we on Friday that we would have had to refund monies that we put systems in place, but good work by the ground staff caused us to have play."
According to Holder, "it was more than getting just a game; it was the frustration of the nation.
What these fellows did took that depression away. They removed the blanket of depression and made Guyanese smile again to get one day of international cricket."
Chief groundsman Harrichand, who has been a groundsman at the GCC for the past nine years, told Stabroek Sport that even after Friday's rain and the state of the GCC ground, he was not daunted. Instead, he was confident that together with his hard-working staff, play could have been possible on Sunday.
"I know once we had the pumps working outside we could do the job," Harrichand said. He thanked his staff for a job well done.
Singh used the opportunity to thank Jeffrey Fraser, the Seeram Brothers, GT&T and Guyana Water Incorporated for the use of their pumps, Ainlim and T. Geddes Grant for the use of their tractors and the Guyana Defence Force for the use of their helicopter.
"I think the (helicopter) pilot did a really good job in drying the playing arena," Singh stated.