THE Guyana National Stadium (GNS) was commissioned in 2006 after being built by the Government of Guyana with substantial assistance from the Government of India.

Built specially for the 2007 Cricket World Cup, it was designed by R.K. & Associates (Ram Kishan and Associates – Architects, Engineers, Planners) and constructed by Shapoorji Pallonji Group and has the capacity to be a Multi Sport Facility.

Since its commissioning, it has been used for a majority of events which range from sport to entertainment.

What is most note worthy about the 15,000 capacity venue is that it’s among the fastest-drying grounds in the world.

However, on the state-of-the-art list, the GNS battles close to the cellar position with a lack of technology which has to be compensated by acquiring services for events.

Over the years, the Stadium has been begging for some much- needed attention which it will apparently soon get, according to a source close to the Minister of Sport.

Chronicle Sport made several attempts to contact the Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, to confirm this, but those calls went unanswered.

However, the source stated that the Ministry already has plans to completely overhaul the Stadium located in Providence, along with several other venues across the nation.

The GNS is currently the most recognized sporting venue in the country but it has been under the scope for several aspects that are evident.

The almost 15-year-old venue screams for some attention that includes a regular pressure washing to keep moss away from the concrete parts exposed to the weather and the replacement of a few brittle seats.

Added to that, there are two manually operated scoreboards for cricketing purposes on the western and eastern sides of the venue which are fine for nostalgic purposes, but it shows how far behind the venue is, in today’s arena.

The larger of the two one-dimensional scoreboard takes at least 12-16 persons to effectively operate while around 8-10 make up the man-power to keep the smaller board ticking. A technological upgrade in this aspect will allow the GNS to be more versatile with hosting of events

Meanwhile, the stands opened to spectators were probably hastily named Red Stand, Green Stand, Orange Stand and the other seating section for spectators is the Grass Mound. For a venue specially constructed for the 2007 ICC World Cup in a country that boasts a legendary line of West Indian cricketers, one would hope for some reconsideration in this aspect of an upgrade.

The Red Stand and Mound flank the Media Centre End while the Orange and Green stands are erected to the sides of the Pavilion End.

Upon a visit to the Stadium, all these aspects are quite evident and shows the venue has the potential to be great, but if they’re ignored, the opposite direction could mean travesty.

There are still a few other features that need improving or need to be added to boost the venue’s advancement, but none are immediately threatening.

The Pitch

Without a doubt, the pitch is the most important part of a cricketing venue. GNS’s pitch has seen several other International sports being hosted such as Rugby and Football where the pitch became a regular part of the playing area.

But research shows that following these events the pitch has always managed to get a rating of good or higher by the International Cricket Council (ICC), prior to one of their sanctioned events.

However, the pitch has favoured batters more than bowlers overtime but has room to become versatile if a well-calculated refurbishing attempt is made.