By Neto Baptiste
The historic Antigua Recreation Ground (ARG) could be in for a major facelift after it was one of three venues inspected on Wednesday by the International Cricket Council (ICC) as a possible practice venue ahead of the 2024 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup set to bowl off on June 4.
The team, led by ICC’s pitch consultant, Andy Atkinson, inspected the playing area at the St John’s venue before on Wednesday afternoon before having a brief discussion with head of the Local Organising Committee (LOC) and President of the Antigua and Barbuda Cricket Association (ABCA), Leon “Kuma” Rodney.
Although not revealing details of the discussion, Rodney said he was happy about the prospect of having the historic grounds as a practice venue.
“I would want to give some kudos to the Minister of Sports [Daryll Matthew] and you know I don’t give away kudos very easily, but I think it is a good idea from the minister to try and bring the recreation grounds back. It is just at a practice venue for now, but I think that in the long term it can do well for local cricket, schools cricket and maybe the home of Combined Schools and a god training venue. It will take some work but at the end of the day the professionals feel we can have this up and running as a practice venue for the ICC World Cup,” he said.
If chosen as one of two practice venues for the prestigious event, Rodney said it will take some work to get the facility up to par, but added it is not am impossible feat.
“Nothing happens without money and once we can have the budget in place then I think we can see it as a very good venue. I was here [recently] and saw the amount of people who still come to this venue [and] it gives me a sort of revitalisation in terms of my spirit. I have no doubt in my mind that teams would be more than happy to be practising at the ARG because it’s so historic,” he said.
The cricket boss went on to reveal that he will be making application to the relevant authorities that the venue be utilised by the sports ministry’s Combined Schools as their home base once the ICC tournament has ended.
“I will be writing to Mrs Heather Samuel [Daley] and all the relevant persons that once we get the ARG up and running that it should really should be Combined Schools’ home. There are facilities on both the north and south sides and I am sure that the young people can be very comfortable here in a comfortable secure area,” Rodney said.
The T20 World Cup will be jointly hosted in the West Indies and the USA. The team also inspected the Liberta facility and the main host venue, The Sir Vivian Richards Stadium and Wednesday and was set to inspect the Coolidge Cricket Ground (CCG) on Thursday.
The Sir Vivian Richards Stadium and Kensington Oval, Barbados, will each feature eight games. The Daren Sammy Cricket Ground in Saint Lucia will feature six games.
