Over a year after a Memorandum of Agreement for the rehabilitation of the tennis courts at the National Park had been signed between the Guyana Tennis Association (GTA) and the National Parks Commission, works on the courts have begun. According to reports, the GTA was able to secure financing from the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T) to back the project which includes the resurfacing of the three courts at the facility.
The resurfacing of the courts is a project that the Guyana Tennis Association had been hoping to undertake for quite some time now but financial constraints continued to be the limiting factor.
In August 2010 the association, then the Guyana Lawn Tennis Association, signed a MoU with the NPC. The agreement was signed between GLTA’s president, Christopher Ram and NPC chairman John Caesar. Works had been expected to begin some two months after the signing.
Works at the site are said to have begun sometime last week. The resurfacing of the courts comes on the heels of a visit from the International Tennis Federation (ITF) Development Officer of the English- speaking Caribbean, Anthony Jeremiah, who arrived in Guyana last Thursday.
The last time Jeremiah was here, in February of last year, he remarked upon the state of the tennis facilities in Guyana, singling out the courts of the National Park as being not “playable” or “conducive for young players…” During that visit Jeremiah had stressed the importance for proper tennis courts.
Director of Sports Neil Kumar had responded by saying that the National Sports Commission would undertake the task of rehabilitating the courts. Kumar had said that the courts would have been rehabilitated in an extension of the works already ongoing to resurface the National Park circuit. However, these plans fell through. According to Kumar they were unable to have the contractor embark on the project.
