GCB president assures that preparations are on track for first Digicel Test

GEORGETOWN, Guyana – President of the Guyana Cricket Board Chetram Singh is assuring the public that preparations for the first Digicel Test match are going as planned. Singh gave this assurance despite the GCB being forced to switch venues for Sri Lanka’s warm up match starting tomorrow, Monday 17th.
 
 The three day match against the Guyana President Select XI was originally slated for the world famous Bourda ground, the traditional international venue in Guyana, but after several days of unseasonal heavy rainfall the ground was completely water logged and preparations were stalled. The match has now been shifted to the Guyana National Stadium at Providence which is where the first Digicel Test will commence on March 22nd.
 
 “After Bourda was under water for several days we consulted the West Indies Cricket Board about using the National Stadium for the warm up match and we were told once we do not use the same pitch it would be fine and the pitch we are using [for the warm up game] is two pitches away from the one we will be using for the Test match,” explained Singh who is also a director of the WICB.
 
 Singh said preparations to the Test pitch have also been upped and the groundsmen will continue to work on it early in the mornings and late on the evenings.
 
 “We also decided that we will have the groundsmen do a lot of overtime in doing preparations to the Test pitch early in the morning and late in the evenings during the three days of the practice match to keep the preparations going because we started the preparations for the Test match earlier than usual so we will ensure that the three day match will not disturb the Test pitch to a level of Test match readiness,” Singh assured.
 
 He said that as a result of the constant rainfall in the early part of last week ticket sales for the first Digicel Test were slow but picked up later in the week.
 
 “Ticket sales picked up on Friday after two days of little rain and much sunshine and we’re hoping from Monday that the sales will pick up further with additional publicity and the cricket fever kicking in with the public knowing that the Sri Lankans are here,” Singh explained.
 
 The Sri Lankan team arrived in Guyana late on Friday evening. After a one day break on Saturday to rest after their 50 hour journey from Asia, they commenced training in Georgetown on Sunday morning.
 
 It is the first time the Guyana National Stadium will host a Test match after being initially used for six Cricket World Cup matches in 2007 and Singh said the facility is much better for the organizers.
 
 “The confusion we usually have at Bourda at the gates and so on, we don’t see that confusion at the stadium. Parking facilities will be much better at the stadium because there is a huge parking space in front the stadium and because the stadium was constructed to specific International Cricket Council regulations the entire running of cricket at the Stadium is going to be much easier,” Singh said.
 
 “Also in terms of security I think the stadium has a better security plan being a newly constructed stadium,” Singh added.
 
 The 15,000 seater Guyana National Stadium is the third international venue in the South American country, following Bourda and Albion which hosted five One Day Internationals between 1977 and 1985.
 
 For more information please visit www.digicelcricket.com.