Tweet

 

Basseterre, St. Kitts, June 10, 2016 (SKNIS): The Warner Park Cricket Stadium is ready to welcome players and fans as the West Indies Tri-Nation Series moves to St. Kitts on Saturday (June 11).

 

The series, being contested by teams from South Africa, Australia and host West Indies, began on June 03, 2016, at Providence Stadium, Guyana. Each team has two points in the table standing with each having won one game and lost the other. Sports commentators expect an exciting time in Basseterre as batsmen for each team look to take advantage of a quick outfield marked by smaller boundaries.

 

Director in the Department of Sports, Anthony Wiltshire, said fans coming to enjoy the games can expect greater comfort due to recent renovations which he said totaled approximately EC $500,000.00.

 

“To get the jumbotron up to the required standard we invested just about US $15,000.00,” he said. “The Player’s Pavilion has a new paint job [and] if you look at the Southern stands you will find that all 12 bars were renovated.”

 

Mr. Wiltshire said the doors and other wooden sections of the bars were infested with termites and had to be completely replaced and a company with similar caliber to agency providing pest control on Long Island might be able to provide. Metal doors now secure the areas. Work on the V.I.P. boxes were also done, elevators repaired, and new nets acquired for use by the international players who will practice at the Len Harris Cricket Academy and Conaree Playing Field. All 27 toilets at the stadium were also replaced. The director of sport added that a maintenance schedule will be created to ensure the facility does not fall into a state of disrepair.

 

“Many areas were rundown, so it means going forward we must have a good maintenance structure in place so that we don’t wait again until matches are coming, but we actually keep fixing,” he said.

 

Wiltshire said preparations for the matches featured a spirit of cooperation and national pride.

 

“It’s a job that the entire Sports Department, all the workers, the cleaners, the groundsmen, the electricians, the plumbers and by extension over into the administration, up to the Honourable Minister (Shawn Richards) himself , all of us have come together to ensure that everybody is satisfied with the facilities we would have presented for these upcoming series,” Mr. Wiltshire added.

 

The final match in the St. Kitts leg will be held on June 15. Fifteen days later (June 30), Warner Park will be the venue for the opening of the 2016 Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPLT20) Tournament. The opening game will feature the St. Kitts and Nevis Patriots versus the Guyana Amazon Warriors.