CELEBRATION! One of the few causes for celebration at the Providence
Stadium yesterday. (Lawrence Fanfair photo)

Yesterday's Twenty20 cricket match at the National Stadium at Providence arranged to test the pitch, outfield and the rest of the facility took a back seat to the observation of the operation of the facility.

Many patrons turned up at the new national stadium only to find out they needed tickets to enter an event which was widely publicized as free.

According to the Local Organizing Committee, several thousand tickets were printed and distributed for free and no more were available.

The problem was the general public was not informed about the tickets and how to get them.

The facility was not filled to its 15,000 capacity and only about eight thousand persons were able to witness the match leaving many disappointed fans, who had travelled from far away locations like Parika and Santa Mission and had to return home without seeing so much as the inside of the stadium.

Getting to the stadium from Georgetown, normally a ten-minute drive took two hours on average. Upon arrival at the stadium things did not get much better as even the president of the Guyana Cricket Board Chetram Singh was turned away on his first attempt to enter the facility.

The facility, still not complete, but ready for cricket, displayed an outfield that was slow, and with very little bounce. However, the ground staff gave the assurance that the performance would improve once the outfield is properly rolled.

The pitch fared a little better. Georgetown Cricket Club captain and opening bowler Jason Benn, who played in one of the practice matches last year said:"the pitch has improved tremendously but is still a little slow."

Umpire Daveteerth Anandjit, after officiating in the game said:"the bounce was true for most of the match but the pitch is on the slow side."

Young Warriors, who took on GCC yesterday, were indebted to left-arm medium pacer Devendra Ramoutar, who picked up 4-10, in a man-of-the-match winning performance, to lead his team to a nine-run victory. Vishal Singh scored 46 not out in a losing effort for the Georgetown club as they fell nine runs short of the modest target of 99.

Anthony D' Andrade be-came the first person to hit a six at the new facility when he lifted medium pacer Shivanand Shivram over mid wicket to top score for the Berbicians with 22.

Young Warriors batted first and scored what seemed to be an inadequate 98-9 in 20 overs.

GCC had a disastrous start, as Ramoutar ripped apart the batting line up. After losing the first three wickets for nine runs they never recovered. Singh was the silver lining on a dark cloud; batting at number three, he never seemed in trouble even as wickets fell around him, striking the ball beautifully to remain not out on 46 as GCC could manage only 89-9 after 20 overs.