Despite producing players such as Travis Dowlin, Ramnaresh Sarwan and most recently, Keemo Paul, the Essequibo Island of Wakenaam has been plagued by poor cricket facilities and equipment.
Stabroek Sport visited the island last weekend and witnessed firsthand the difficulties faced by the small but strong supporters of the gentleman’s game and sat down with the Chairman of the Wakenaam Cricket Committee, Khemraj Surijpaul to get an insight as it relates to their struggles.
Surijpaul explained that there are seven grounds that were used for cricket in the past but lack of funding and poor maintenance resulted in that number being cut down to just one, the Wakenaam Community Center.
The others are overgrown with bushes and are used as storage facilities for building materials and animal pasture.
“We have some issues concerning sports,” he declared.
“We only have one ground functioning, the good Success ground and two are on the verge of being repaired but we doubt we can have cricket on them anytime soon,” he added.
The lone functional ground is maintained by the efforts of residents and the Neighbourhood Democratic Council but these efforts are few and far, he said.
The lawn mower which was used to weed the ground is broken for nearly two months now and there seems no hope that it will be fixed anytime soon.
In addition, the ground does not have covers. It took a mere 20 minutes of rain Sunday for the ground to be so affected that the match was in real danger of being called off.
However, the swift work of villagers and the glorious sunshine that followed resulted in there being play eventually.
It is the absence of covers that caused the final to be delayed nearly five months and the WCC chairman said he was calling out the Director of Sport on his promise last year to assist the community in upgrading the facility.
“We did give Director of sport Christopher Jones an estimate to upgrade the currently functional ground, he said.
“He took the letter from us and told us he is going to respond to us and up to today we didn’t get no response,” he said adding that the sum of $1.5 million was estimated to fix the pavilion, the washrooms, lights and the ground itself.
“We need a covering for the pitch, that is very important and we don’t have one so we are asking the National Sports Commission to assist in getting a covering and also lights so that in the evening people could come and do their exercises,” said Surijpaul.
He credited the NDC for its support but said that he was aware that they cannot do it themselves.
“What we have to do on these grounds is upgrade them very early, I know for a fact the NDC chips in but they can’t do everything off their own and we need support from the government…If they come in and lend support we can have a smooth flow on the island and cricket is the only means of bringing out people on the island, we don’t have any more sporting activity on the island so this is the time when we are unified,” Surijpaul told Stabroek Sport. Surijpaul urged those in authority to help preserve Wakenaam cricket, noting the vast amount of talent that has been continuously coming from the island and representing the country.
He said that in most cases the talented players are forced to go to other parts of the country in order to advance their careers due to the lack of resources on the island.
He called on the administration to help develop the venues, indicating that the island serves as a host for inter-island competitions.
