Lequay supports $850M Brian Lara Sporting complex

OUTGOING CEO of the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board (TTCB) Alloy Lequay has come out in full support of Government’s proposed $850 million sporting complex in Tarouba — which since being announced, has kicked up a storm of controversy by members of the business sector who feel State funds should be spent more on crime. “Let sports be the flagship for a new agenda in nation building. We cannot continue to pay lip service to sport, which if properly organised, can make a significant contribution to social capital,” Lequay told Newsday. Lequay, a veteran sports administrator, is giving his full support to Government’s plans of erecting the Brian Lara Stadium in Tarouba over a four year period for the further development of cricket, hockey, athletics, cycling, swimming and other sporting disciplines.

Lequay, an advocate of the Total Participation in Sport and High Performance Level, said: “It is in this context we must assess the investment in a sporting complex which will cater for many sporting disciplines and provide state of the art technology for scientific training.” “Are we ready and willing to give opportunity to our Laras, Bovells, Brownes, Burns and Borrels among others to maximise their talents and compete successfully at the highest level or are we of the view that they must go abroad for training to become elite athletes in order to be competitive on the world stage?”

Lequay recalled that he was part of a 16 member committee which drafted the National Sports Policy that was presented to the then Sports Minister Manohar Ramsaran in 1999, and which is now being implemented after a period of six years. The mission statement of that Sports Policy was — “Towards Total Participation, Quality Training and Excellence in Sport.” He said that the policy was finalised after consultations and follow-up deliberations with national sporting associations and it was consistent with international trends covering two broad dimensions of contemporary sports — total participation and high performance.

On the proposed Brian Lara Stadium, Lequay said “much comment and some criticisms have been made of our expenditure of $850 million for the Stadium but it is clear that the complex for cricket, hockey, athletics, cycling, swimming and other disciplines is not a cricket stadium.” Lequay said expenditure on sports development would in no way impact negatively on the developmental budget of other Ministries and that people who thought otherwise lacked  appreciation of the importance of sports in the nation building process.