Providence is the future; Bourda is the past
Peeping Tom
Kaieteur News
April 6, 2007
A few months ago, the Peeper had reason to visit the offices beneath the High Court. I was deeply impressed with the changes that had taken place.
The offices are now more modern, clean and better organized and even though the level of service can improve tremendously, the registry is much better than it was years ago. The furniture is modern and the office looks the part. I was however taken aback by something that stood out like a sore thumb amongst all the improvements.
Despite the modernity of the office, the Peeper noticed an old typewriter on one of the desks. While there are computers in the office, there was also this old relic which was an oddity given the substantial improvements.
The same oddity presented itself this past week at the National Cricket Stadium at Providence . The Stadium is a modern stadium, one of many built throughout the Caribbean for Cricket World Cup 2007.
It is a modern facility designed with the future in mind and built totally different from the traditional cricketing venue. If there is anything that we can say is the legacy of Cricket World Cup 2007, it will be the number of new facilities constructed throughout the Caribbean for this tournament.
Even before these stadiums were built, however, aspects of the physical facilities were improving. A number of the traditional test playing venues had begun a process of upgrading which had included special boxes for the media and commercial interests.
Guyana was not left out of this process as the Rohan Kanhai Stand and similar facilities were constructed at Bourda, long considered the Mecca of cricket in our country.
Another improvement which came about years ago was modern scoreboards. I recall the derisive comments made about our antiquated wooden scoreboard during the last tour by a foreign team here in Guyana
Given that many of the traditional grounds in the Caribbean had moved to electronic scoreboards, it was to be expected that once the new stadium was constructed at Providence one of the expected features in the modern facility would have been a large electronic scoreboard which would give just as many details as are provided in other international test playing venues.
It came as something of a shock that during Guyana 's staging of the Super Eight leg of CWC 2007 to find a huge wooden scoreboard in the mould of that archaic structure that has existed for years at Bourda. The wooden scoreboard at Providence is an embarrassment to this country. It should not have been erected but instead a modern electronic scoreboard should have been put in place to keep with the demands of present-day international cricket and the modernity of the new stadium.
As if this situation was not disgraceful enough, we have to suffer the indignity of being told that the reason why this wooden scoreboard was set up was to retain the old Bourda feeling. What poppycock! What bull! What confounded nonsense!
Providence is the new; Bourda was the old. Providence is built along modern lines.
Providence cannot seek to replicate Bourda where there were wooden stands and fences separating the stands from the playing area. Providence has permanent seats and a mound. Whenever there was international cricket at Bourda, chairs had to be placed in certain stands, and instead of a mound we had bleachers.
The excuse that the old-fashioned wooden scoreboard was put there to recapture the old Bourda feel is woeful. There should be no excuse for having a wooden, manually-operated scoreboard in a facility which otherwise matches with the most modern cricket venues in the world. There is simply no excuse!
Then we are told that another way in which the feeling of Bourda is to be recaptured would be by having trees. I am appalled again at this continuing nonsensicality. Why do we need trees at Providence ? And just where will these trees be planted?
I hope that no one is thinking about planting the trees between the playing area and the stands because that would totally take away from the view which is the high-point of the stadium. Unlike Bourda where there were a number of obstacles to good viewing of cricket, at the new stadium there is nothing that obstructs you from viewing the cricket. Wherever you are seated in the stadium, the view is excellent.
The only place where trees should be allowed should be behind the mound stand and even here the branches should not overhang too far on to the mound so as to block the view of those who prefer this type of seating.
If we have to find a reason to explain away the embarrassment of having a wooden scoreboard, let us find that explanation, but please let us not tamper with the aesthetics of the stadium. This country has suffered too much negative publicity simply because of the lack of aesthetic appreciation that went into the exterior of the stadium. Let us not meddle with the inside, please.