Minister Smith: Was this so difficult?

After viewing the stadium at the official media tour yesterday, Minister Smith described the feeling as a one which left a bitter-sweet taste in his mouth due to the amount of time lost and massive cost overruns.

The stadium was supposed to be built at a cost of $500m million but has sky-rocketed to over $1 billion in 12 years.

Almost a decade after, he was left questioning the opportunities withheld from the nation’s youths due to the tags of corruption, politics, bureaucracy and all the other negative factors which surrounded the construction of the stadium which has passed through the hands of the PNM, People’s Partnership and now back to the PNM.

Speaking to the media at the special tour, Smith stated, “We pondered, for almost a decade, to start the completion of a project which took nine months. However, we move on, we dust ourselves off and we are optimistic moving forward into the future.” He continued, “We have lost a generation of young athletes, how many memories and records could have been made and broken inside this facility already within that lost generation of 10 years. How many young people, both male and female, could have come here and broken records with the West Indies not only from Trinidad and Tobago, but across the region.” The cricket fortress constructed in southern Trinidad stretches across 95,000 square feet and consists of a gym, two parking lots and a four acre Guyana white sand infield. The stadium’s seating capacity totals 15,000 with an overall attendance of 20,000 individuals.

Smith stressed that with such a facility and wonderful infrastructure, the right human resources must be present to effectively utilise it. Cricket legend and former West Indies captain, Brian Lara, who the facility is named after, missed the official media tour due to being overseas.

However, Smith took the opportunity to laud the national icon’s continued support of the project as he stated, “Even though Lara was angry at the scandals involved and at one point he threatened to remove his name from the facility, along with the tears of disappointment after viewing the facility last November, I am happy that he stood and supported us and for the first time he was part of the process with regards to giving his input towards design and technological advances in the facility.” According to Smith, Lara had also voiced his opinion on the Cricket Academy. He said Lara wants the focus to be on the primary level to develop techniques from a tender age.

National cricketers, starting with the under 15 level, will be utilising the facility for training purposes before the opening date as further analysis and assessments would also be conducted on the field prior to May.