… President Jagdeo says the construction of the facility is to make sports facilities more accessible to ordinary citizens
THE completed Racquet Centre on Woolford Avenue in Georgetown is being regarded by President Bharrat Jagdeo as his Government’s commitment to move sports from “so-called elite institution” and make it more accessible to people from the rural areas. With consultation of the Guyana Squash Association (GSA), the plan for the facility was done by Design and Construction Services Limited (DCSL) and Romell Jagroop’s General Construction was responsible for the construction of the $20.35M facility.
The Government, through the Ministry of Sport spent $28.75M, with the surrounding bleachers built at a cost of $4.19M by Fyffe Building and Contracting Services while the practice courts that cost $4.2M were built by N&R Engineering and Contracting Establishment.
Speaking at last week’s national sports awards ceremony President Jagdeo admitted that sports was placed on the back bench because of the country’s then economic downturn. However, things took a turn for the better therefore  government has been making steady investments into the sector.
The construction of the Racquet Centre, he says, is one way of wanting “to broaden the access for people from rural areas; in and around the city can gain the use of standard sports facilities”.
Georgetown Club is Guyana’s premier squash venue but the club is ‘Members Only’, making it not accessible for outsiders. President Jagdeo said that the courts that have been completed now would give opportunity to kids who may not have access to the  Georgetown Club. I’m not saying it’s an elite club because I’m a member there too, but  frankly speaking not everyone can get into Georgetown Club and then it’s really limited.
“Poor people’s kids from south Georgetown, from Sophia and so on, could have access to squash and now it will become a more broad-based sport and not because they are only one or two squash courts in the so called elite institutions in the country”.
Jagdeo firmly noted that it’s the Government’s responsibility to make sure that all the necessary facilities exist in Guyana for sports and its development and not just focus on having everything done in the city.
“The reason we are decentralising other sporting facilities is because we want people from other parts of the country to be part of it, not putting everything in Georgetown, so the Athletics track goes to Leonora and we are hoping that the same thing that happens at Providence, happens over there; have that sport spin off and other sports up there, so the  same thing we are doing with the swimming pool at Liliendaal” President Jagdeo noted.
The President’s sentiments were echoed by both Minister of Sport Dr Frank Anthony and Director of Sport Neil Kumar.
The contracts for the facility were signed on December 9, 2009 in the Office of the Minister of Sport, who  told the local media “this would be the first publically-owned squash court in Guyana and the development of this project started with a discussion between President Bharrat Jagdeo and the Guyana Squash Association”.
Anthony added, “Just so that we don’t have any ambiguity, all the facilities that we would be developing on that site would be managed by the ministry and associations would be given time to utilise it and the permission would be coming from the ministry.”
A date for the opening of the facility has not yet been set by the authorities and efforts to obtain this information from the Ministry of Sport and National Sports Commission proved futile.