By Neto Baptiste
It could take upwards of EC $6.5 million to ready the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium for next year’s ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.
This is according to stadium manager, Keithroy Black, who said a number of areas are in need of upgrades in preparation for the prestigious tournament.
“Based upon what we’re looking at and based upon a quote we would have gotten before — and that was just for part of it — so if you multiply that by two, we’re looking at about EC $7 million. The screens [electric monitors] are already taken care of so we are looking painting the entire stadium, retrofitting all the [private boxes] and we’re looking at improving — and I say improving with all capital letters — the bathrooms. The bathrooms really need an upgrade so we’re still struggling with that,” he said.
Black said the bathroom facilities and how they are utilised during functions at the venue remains a major concern for management.
“We still have people … when they go into the bathrooms … the commercial heavy duty type hand-towel that you use to wipe your hands … you have people forcing these things down in the urinals and also putting them down into the toilets. When you have hundreds of people going in and out then you’re going to always have a back-up. When they get here to use these bathrooms they need to do better because they know better and they can do better,” the official said.
In September, the International Cricket Council (ICC) confirmed that Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Guyana, St Lucia, Trinidad & Tobago, and St Vincent and The Grenadines as the seven Caribbean venues that will host matches during the T20 World Cup 2024 from 4 to 30 June.
Last month, Dominica announced it was no longer in a position to host matches due to the country’s inability to complete work on practice and match venues before the tournament commences.
Black also said there is a need to increase the power supply to the stadium as they seek to provide additional services to patrons.
“We have some panels here at the stadium as well in terms of the electricity and because we keep adding air condition units and so on in different rooms we kept adding load. An electrician came in and they shared that with us. We have to change the panels and if they want to upgrade it in terms of the amp then they can do that,” he said.
The Sir Vivian Richards Stadium recently hosted two One Day International (ODI) matches between England and the West Indies.
Along with the Caribbean Islands, the USA is also set to co-host the event for the first time, with Grand Prairie in Dallas, Broward County in Florida, and Nassau County in New York announced as venues.
