… Residents call on Infrastructure Minister to facilitate ferry transportation
Sport fans in Essequibo, long dubbed the “Cinderella County”, are requesting that Public Infrastructure Minister David Patterson make arrangements with the transportation department so that they could use the Parika-Supenaam ferry service to attend the Guyana Amazon Warriors games and return home the same night.
Even though Essequibo has the smallest population of the three counties, and is cut off from the major urban stadiums, residents have remained consistently passionate about cricket, which is played enthusiastically at all levels in both the male and female forms of the game.
“Budday, every Sunday, our cricket grounds are full, because cricket is very well organised on the Coast,” one fan, a vendor at Anna Regina, Essequibo Coast, Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam) said. Essequibo has four Cricket Committees on the coast, plus one on Leguan and Wakenaam respectively.
Essequibo has always played the game beyond its nominal potential, because of the massive support from ordinary people and has produced several cricketers who have made the Guyana side. Fast bowler Ronsford Beaton is just the latest in a long line that also includes Keemo Paul.
In their case, they also made the West Indies team. Essequibo won the 2016 Guyana Cricket Board (GCB)/Jaguars 50-over League and reached the final last year. With the advent of the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) and local franchise, the Guyana Amazon Warriors, new young players like Beaton and Paul were facilitated to have an opportunity to make their mark.
These are the same fans who would give their eyeteeth to come out to the Providence Stadium for the three early games on Thursday, Saturday and next Sunday. Only those Essequibians who are wealthy enough to afford hotel rooms or lucky enough to have relatives in Demerara could see their home team play in the flesh.
“Why can’t the Government and Minister Patterson help out by scheduling the ferry to bring us back home?” another fan named Desmond asked plaintively. “Like Cinderella, we can still get back before midnight!” he joked. He noted that for the 16:00h (4pm) games, since these would end at 19:00h (7pm), with an hour to exit the stadium and another to reach Parika, fans could be back home by 23:00h (11pm) with the ferry. He added that for the 18:00h (6pm) games, as the vendor of Anna Regina predicted, they would still beat Cinderella’s 12 midnight deadline. One Government Regional Councillor supported the call and hoped his Administration would act quickly. “It would bring much goodwill during the upcoming Local Government Elections,” he smiled.
