By Neto Baptiste
Minister of Sports, Daryll Matthew, said he has held meetings with several potential investors who have shown interest in restoration efforts at the historic Antigua Recreation Grounds (ARG).
Speaking recently on the Good Morning Jojo sports show, Matthew said the decision to restore the playing surface at the St John’s facility, which was used as a practice venue for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, has seemingly sparked interest internationally.
“Over the last week, with the cricket that has been here, I personally have been invited to some meetings with some partners from abroad who, having seen the ARG, expressed some interest. We have to be careful, though, because I have very little appetite for signing on to any multi-year or multi-decade lease to pass the ARG to any third party, and so any agreement that is put in place where persons may offer some financial support to upgrade the ARG, has to be done on terms that are conducive to what we want here in Antigua and Barbuda,” he said.
In May, Matthew revealed that planned upgrades to the venue for the T20 World Cup would cost the government $500,000.
The minister said that since then, there has been a renewed interest in the facility as a cricket venue with added exposure coming from international media.
“I don’t know that any meeting has taken place over an extended period but it is probably time now to reconvene and especially given the interest in the ARG over the last two weeks. I’ve done no less than two or three media interviews with international media really singing the praises of the facility and the preparation of the field at the ARG and really wanting to know what’s next,” he said.
The history venue, in late may, hosted its first cricket match since 2009 with the staging of the Antigua and Barbuda Cricket Association (ABCA) All Stars T20 Cricket Match.
