“DILAPIDATED” is the word used now to best describe the Mackenzie Sports Club Ground, a facility that once was the envy of community grounds in Guyana, especially during the pre-independence era.

Built and established in 1951, a gift to Linden from the then Demerara Bauxite Company (DEMBA), the ‘MSC Ground’ has had its name etched in history as the place where Desmond Hector and Marian Burnett were first introduced to the world before going on to represent Guyana at the Olympic Games.

Besides being the place where the great Edward ‘Screw’ Richmond became a household name in football, the MSC Ground also holds profound memories for the ‘Hitman’ Collie Hercules, arguably the best striker Guyana has ever produced.
More recently, Guyana’s team at this year’s CARIFTA Games grabbed eight medals (four golds, one silver and three bronzes). Two golds and two bronzes were won by athletes from Linden who call the MSC Ground home.

Linden’s dominance at the National Schools Track and Field Championship is well documented, where under the ‘Upper Demerara/Kwakwani’ banner, the District (10) won 15 titles; and it is the MSC Ground that facilitates all meets in the area.

Recently, the Government of Guyana announced that a synthetic track will be laid in Linden at an estimated cost G$210M, but now, the ‘authorities’ are at loggerheads over where this facility, THE FIRST OF ITS KIND for the community, will be located.

POLITICS?

There is an unwritten rule that says, “Sports and politics is like trying to mix oil with water”, which is like saying they just wouldn’t blend. But that’s far from the truth. In fact, sports and politics go hand-in-hand, and understandably so, sometimes.

The synthetic track going to Linden is a campaign promise being fulfilled by the APNU/AFC Government, just like the G$110M lights at the Albion Sports Complex under the PPP/C Government in 2014, and the country’s first ever synthetic track that was built at Leonora, which, by the way, was an insult to the people of Guyana.
Under both administrations, Linden has suffered; that should be “stifled”, when it comes to infrastructural development, let alone for sports, especially from 1993. Linden is seen by the PPP/C as a stronghold for the People’s National Congress-Reform (PNCR), the dominant party in the APNU+AFC coalition, and as such, it is yet to receive the goodies that many would have expected.
The Albion Sports Complex was built in the early 1970s, while the MSC Ground has been in existence for 66 years.

Between 1977 and 1985, the ground hosted five One-Day Internationals (ODI), with the West Indies facing the likes of Pakistan, New Zealand and England during that period.
However, while it can be boasted that the MSC Ground has hosted international basketball, and football matches, it must be noted that the Linden facility serves an entire community, and its upkeep, or lack thereof, can have both negative and positive effects on the athletes.

Point is, the PPPC could have gone to the Blairmont Community Centre Ground, which is also rich in local cricket history, but instead, they chose to maintain and help enhance a ‘legacy’.

Region 10 Member of Parliament, Jermaine Figueira, in the March 17, 2017 edition of Chronicle Sport, announced that the Bayroc Community Centre Ground was the place chosen to establish the synthetic track, but this could be a farce, since, according to a well-placed source, the Guyana Government has not done any feasibility studies for any venue in Linden. Also, there exists an agreement between the Government of Guyana and the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) for a FIFA Forward Programme to be built at the Bayroc Community Centre.

FIFA-contracted inspector Dr. Stephen Baker had visited Guyana on August 26, 2015 and conducted soil testing at the Bayroc facility, and there is an already approved architectural design as well.
The Christianburg Community Centre Ground will also be a beneficiary of a FIFA Forward Programme, where an artificial turf will be installed, along with lights, dressing rooms and upgraded stands.

As such, it is only fitting, in terms of historical relations and ‘political etiquette’, that the MSC Ground be chosen as the venue for Linden’s first, well deserved, and long overdue synthetic track.