Strangely, the matches are confined to three Caribbean countries only—Barbados, Guyana and Saint Lucia. No reason as been given why there will be no matches in Trinidad and Tobago.
I understand the T&T Cricket Board did their part, back in early 2009, and submitted their bid documents to the Government for their required approval. And there it stopped.
The government apparently declined to give their approval for any matches to be played here. This is reminiscent of government’s refusal to bid for the ICC World Cup in 2007, when we ended up being handed the “Brown package”.
And then, after having failed pathetically to have Tarouba ready for the ICC World Cup in 2007 anyway, I thought Manning and his government would have grabbed the opportunity to have T-20 cricket played there in 2010.
Early in 2009 government announced that the Brian Lara Stadium was going to be ready for matches in July 2009. Then it was certainly going to be ready for its “Opening Match”, to be played in front of the Commonwealth Heads of Government in November 2009. Patrick Manning even said he was discussing the event with Brian Lara.
Apparently, he never thought of discussing it with the TTCB or the ICC, or indeed UDeCOTT, who was still holding the keys, so to speak.
Actually, UDeCOTT is still “holding the keys”, and no one—not Manning, not outgoing Sports Minister Gary Hunt, not the contractors—whoever they may be now—can give us a date when cricket might be played at this half billion dollar fiasco—now over three years overdue.
Let me suggest the date: Never! This stadium will never be suitable for cricket. Why? Because it was built on what we call “Sapotay Clay”, which is well known to local civil engineers, but apparently not to foreigners (here to show us how to complete buildings), nor to Prime Ministers with degrees in geology.
This clay, common in Central and South, “heaves” and shrinks between the rainy and dry seasons, and that is the cause of the “unrepairable” undulations in the Solomon Hochoy Highway.
The cricket pitch at Tarouba will always move with the changing seasons, and that is why cricket cannot be played there.
When this was finally realized, Patrick Manning made a strange announcement. He—geologist that he is—announced about two years ago that the road leading into the stadium was moving up and down “because of seismic activity along a Fault Line under the road”.
Really?
I checked with the Seismic Research Unit and they confirmed that there has not been any seismic activity in living memory which would cause the surface of the land to move.
Manning set that story up, so “seismic activity” could be used as an excuse for being unable to play cricket at Tarouba.
But back to the cricket which will not be played here. Why was the TTCB bid rejected by our own government? Even if Manning knew he was lying about hosting cricket for CHOGM, we still have the iconic QPCC, newly refurbished and floodlights.
And the strange thing is that no one in T&T, not the TTCB, not cricket fans, not the hotel industry, and certainly not the Minister of Tourism, who has no clue that Sports Tourism even exists, ever objected.
But could anyone expect the Minister of Tourism to open his mouth after “the Prime Minister has spoken”? It has never ceased to amaze me how business interests in this country generally, but more particularly the hotel and hospitality industry, has never supported the hosting of sports events in T&T.
What is it about governments, chambers of commerce, and the hospitality industry in other countries that they can understand and appreciate sports tourism as a major revenue centre?
We—our government and businesses—are still in the dark ages on this issue. How come?
After all, the TV coverage of sports events far exceeds coverage of summits. Then, to make matters worse, the ODI’s and T-20 matches against South Africa, scheduled for the Queens Park Oval in May were moved to Antigua by the ICC.
They apparently did this because the matches scheduled for May 23rd and 25th straddled the date that Manning had set for him to demit office.
Well, they were probably concerned about security at that time, and with T&T getting increasingly alarming safety reviews over the past eight years, I suppose we must accept this.
But things are changing, and the FIFA Women’s U-17 Tournament which will be played in T&T in September will be the first event in a new dispensation of bringing international sports to T&T—Just like in the real first world.
Peter's columns also appear in NEWSDAY
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