Recently, on one of my trips around the country, I was taken by surprise by the amount of construction I was seeing taking place at many of the recreation grounds.
I even went to visit my good friend Patrick Rampersad in Diego Martin and was pleasantly surprised to see the spanking outfield at the Northern Recreation ground which had been rehabilitated by the Sports Company of Trinidad & Tobago (SporTT).
On further investigation, I was told that SporTT has touched over 60 venues in T&T, where they have undertaken renovation work in an effort to have these facilities up to standard for the development of the sportsmen and women in this country.
What I have noticed, though, is that the facilities are not just being repaired but they are being upgraded and this is excellent because we all know that we have been lagging behind the rest of the world in terms of having decent sports facilities. The only facility of world standard that we possess in this country is the Queen's Park Oval in Port-of-Spain, and this is privately owned.
SporTT does not have the budget to develop all the facilties in this country to world standard and even if they had, it would not be wise to bring all up to first-class standard because in a small country as ours, there is no need for too many facilities up to that standard because maintenance would be difficult, and for the most part, many of them would end up as "white elephants." The "think tank" at SporTT seems to know what is required to improve standards.
Adviser Colin Borde has travelled the world during his stint as manager of the T&T cricket team, as well as manager of the West Indies "A" team.He recently made a trip to South Africa and spent time there during the Champions League taking video footage and still shots, as well as interviewing venue specialists across there, all in an effort to gather important data in moving facilities forward.
You are seeing the benefits of his involvement at SporTT because today many of the facilities are taking shape.It is a process that will take time but I am confident that SporTT is on the right track and will achieve its objective.One of the main areas SporTT has paid attention to at all the facilities is the playing field. This is critical and they are trying to do away with some of the unbelievable playing surfaces we have in this country.
There are some grounds that are so steep that when a bowler starts his run-up the batsman cannot see him.The umpire has to indicate to the batsman that the bowler is approaching. Then there are some grounds that have drains running across the playing surface. Areas like these can end the career of a promising young athlete before it even starts.
A closer look at one of the facilities SporTT has upgraded–and I am talking about the Northern Recreation Ground in Diego Martin–would reveal that the outfield is a beautiful turtle-back shape and covered in Bermuda grass, which is soft and excellent for outfielding.However, there is a downside to all this upgrading by SporTT.The community has to raise its game and come on board. When SporTT puts in Bermuda grass at their grounds, they will require special equipment to cut this grass and maintain the outfield.
This is where the community has to get behind the regional corporations and agitate for assistance. When SporTT upgrades the ground, they have done their part, it is now up to the regional corporations and the community as a whole to take ownership of the grounds and keep it pristine.
If this is not done, the facility will disintegrate to the point where it is only good for the ill-directed in our society to meet and carry on their illegal activities. We have to do away with this dependency syndrome and take care of what is ours.
In 2010, I visited New Zealand and what I saw amazed me. The people there took ownership of their grounds. The liaison officer for the West Indies Under-19 cricket team on that occasion was a man named Greg Stretch and he was a manager at one of the local banks. Yet this man would wait until the players left the dressing rooms and clean up before he left.
This was not his job as liaison officer but he said he wanted to make sure he did his part to keep the facility in order.On another occasion in New Zealand, a piece of paper was blowing across the grass mound at the ground and a youngster was in hot pursuit to collect the paper and put it in a bin.He had nothing to do with the paper blowing across the field–but it was so ingrained in him to do his part to keep his country clean, he did not hesitate to get rid of the paper.It is just an example that we need to adopt in this country to keep our facilities up to standard.