THE Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) has finally secured the lease for the LBI Community Centre ground, which will now pave the way for the board to invest approximately $600M in the next few years towards the general upgrading of the facility to benefit the cricketing community.

Chronicle Sport was reliably informed yesterday that the lease was finally approved by the Guyana Sugar Corporation Inc. (GuySuCo), in January of this year.

The GCB had engaged the previous administration and GuySuCo for several years now, and while they had obtained approval from the-then Minister of Agriculture, Robert Persaud, who had instructed GuySuCo to hand over the facility to the GCB, the formal legal documentation to facilitate this development was delayed.

The GCB had already invested close to $75M a few years ago to construct the existing hostel, the Chetram Singh Centre of Excellence at that location, and over the years the Board has saved a lot of accommodation expenses with the use of this hostel to house its players.

In addition to the facilities for the accommodation of teams preparing for local and regional tournaments, the Centre comprises indoor nets, a gym and a lecture room, all designed to turn out more rounded players, who are prepared to meet the challenges of the modern game.

The multi-million dollar structure was officially opened in 2010.

Meanwhile, secretary of the GCB, Anand Sanasie, said plans are now in the pipeline for major transformation works on the LBI facility.

“The first phase of the upgrade will be to raise the playfield so as to eliminate flooding, and at the same time major repairs to the overall pavilion,” Sanasie said.

The GCB secretary also gave the vision he has for the facility. “We will start this year with a lot of money to develop the LBI facility, and ultimately we would like that to become a mini-stadium where we can house the academy, and have up to the level of regional cricket at least; because Providence will be reserved for international fixtures. The GCB intends to start some serious investment into that facility,” Sanasie who is also a director of Cricket West Indies opined.

It is expected that the bulk of the funding will come from the board through the funds from the franchise league.