February 26, 2030, will mark the centenary anniversary of the West Indies’ first-ever Test victory. That win was achieved against our former colonial masters England at the Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC), Bourda in what was then known as British Guiana.
It was subsequently renamed Guyana when Independence was achieved on May 26, 1966.
Bourda is now no longer used as a Test cricket venue and has since fallen into an unfortunate state of disrepair. However, to recognise its historical importance, now would be an appropriate period for that venue to be brought back to international acclaim by having it transformed into a Caribbean cricket museum, while at the same time being used to house a Cricket Academy for Under-13 to Under-17 cricketers from around the region.
From the late 1920s until 2007, Bourda functioned as one of the West Indies’ Test venues. It became just as famous during that period as Barbados’ Kensington Oval, Jamaica’s Sabina Park, and Trinidad & Tobago’s Queen’s Park Oval; the other three Caribbean grounds that functioned as Test venues for most of the 20th century.
Antigua’s Recreation Ground was also added to that list during the 1980s.
The region’s hosting of the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) 2007 50-overs World Cup, however, resulted in the construction of a new cricket stadium at Providence, on the East Bank of Guyana’s Demerara River. Since then, Test matches in Guyana have always been played at the Providence Stadium and never, ever, again at Bourda.
The last Test match played at Bourda was on March 31-April 4, 2005, when West Indies faced South Africa. Bourda’s last ODI was on May 7, 2006, a West Indies – Zimbabwe fixture.
The abandonment of Bourda as an international cricket venue in favour of the Providence Stadium, coupled with the emigration from Guyana by many from within the GGC’s membership core, caused it to fall into severe financial hardship.
Until then, Bourda’s famous GCC pavilion had been graced by the presence of many of the Caribbean’s greatest Test cricketers, from George Headley in 1930 to Brian Lara and Shivnarine Chanderpaul in 2005 and far too many others in between to even list. Not to mention their international opponents from England’s Les Ames in 1930 to South Africa’s Jacques Kallis in 2005.
Post 2005, the once famous Bourda pavilion, however, very quickly became little more than a glorified rum shop watering hole for the club’s ever-dwindling membership.
Deprived of even the most basic maintenance, virtually all of the ground’s mostly wooden stands, including those that had been named after two of Guyana’s greatest-ever Test players, Lance Gibbs and Clive Lloyd, literally rotted away before they were eventually demolished a few years ago.
Thankfully, the steel-framed Rohan Kanhai South Stand was, however, spared a similar fate and still stands today along with the main and ladies’ pavilions as one of the ground’s remaining iconic structures. Not so the former Kenny Wishart, Flagstaff Stand, which had been named after one of the club’s longest-serving presidents, and which was also eventually demolished.
Kenny Wishart played a solitary Test for the West Indies against England at Bourda in 1934. He scored 52 before being run out as part of the West Indies’ paltry 184. And while he was never selected again to represent the West Indies, following his retirement he became one of the region’s leading cricket administrators.
At the time of his death on October 18, 1972, he still held the reins as GCC’s president.
A giant of a man in every sense of the word. One who I am so very proud to report was also my godfather.
The construction of a West Indies cricket museum, exactly where the Kenny Wishart Stand used to be would, therefore, be a most appropriate means of preserving Guyana’s rich cricketing history. The proposed museum would also honour the achievements of every player who graced Bourda’s pristine playing field with their outstanding exploits.
Kensington Oval and the Queen’s Park Ovals are two of the region’s Test cricket venues that have since established museums, either directly on their premises or in very close proximity, and can be used as templates for the proposed Bourda Museum.
At the recent suggestion of former Caribbean and Guyana cricket radio commentator, Joseph Reds Perreira, the GCC’s Executive Board has begun pursuing plans for the establishment of a museum at the ground, under the active leadership of the club’s vice-president Ramsay Ali. Those plans are, however, for the museum to be located on the upper floor of the GCC pavilion.
Their concern over acquiring sufficient funding to cover all the costs associated with the museum’s establishment is the primary factor governing the GCC Board’s less ambitious plans.
Funding for such a project should not be difficult for the GCC. President of now oil-rich Guyana, Dr Irfaan Ali recently publicly pledged his support to the further development of West Indies cricket.
Billions of oil money are currently available in the coffers of President Ali’s government, some of which should now be utilized to fully fund the museum’s establishment costs as part of his recently issued West Indies cricket development assistance pledge.
Even more funding can potentially also be gleaned as corporate financial sponsorship from Exxon, the primary beneficiary and developer of Guyana’s oil wealth!
In its heyday, the Bourda pitch was universally acknowledged as one of the best batting tracks in the world. What better place could there be then for the establishment of a Cricket Academy for young, promising cricketers? The Academy could be named after Sir Clive Lloyd, as one of Guyana’s greatest-ever batters. Some of the great former West Indies batters who are still around and active can also be invited periodically to conduct mentoring clinics at the Bourda Academy, which would be geared toward teaching its students the fundamentals of Test match batting.
Antigua’s Sir Viv Richards and Sir Richie Richardson, Barbados’ Gordon Greenidge, Guyana’s Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Jamaica’s Jeffrey Dujon, and, of course, the ‘Prince’ of Trinidad & Tobago Brian Charles Lara, could all at different times be a part of the Academy’s mentoring faculty.
With both the former Clive Lloyd and Lance Gibbs Stands having been torn down, there is now sufficient space available at Bourda for a dormitory as well as indoor gym and cricket practice facilities to also be constructed. The new Bourda complex can be transformed into a facility that simultaneously celebrates West Indies cricket’s very rich history, while providing valuable technical, physical, and mental foundation for the region’s brightest future stars.
Hosted annual Under-13, Under-15, and Under-17 tournaments named after former GCC Test players, Alvin Kallicharran, Ramnaresh Sarwan, and Shivnarine Chanderpaul, involving invited teams would also bring some semblance of international cricket back to Bourda, while of course, also ensuring visits to the museum by not only the participating players but their accompanying family members and friends as well.
It would be a very worthwhile project and totally deserving of both the Guyana government and Exxon’s financial support. Do the right thing President Ali and bring back Bourda to international acclaim!
About The Writer: Guyana-born, Tony McWatt is the Publisher of both the WI Wickets and Wickets/monthly online cricket magazines that are respectively targeted toward Caribbean and Canadian readers. He is also the only son of the former Guyana and West Indies wicket-keeper batsman the late Clifford “Baby Boy” McWatt.