T Cozier: No Trini test? - WICB may side-step Queen's Park Oval (28 May 1998)

28 May 1998

No Trini test? - WICB may side-step Queen's Park Oval

by Tony Cozier

ALREADY faced with a packed agenda, the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) will have to sort out another ticklish problem over the status of Trinidad's Queen's Park Oval, its largest and most used Test ground, at its general meeting in Grenada starting today.

A WICB official, who requested anonymity, confirmed yesterday that the famous ground had not been included for one of the four Tests on the draft itinerary of the Australian tour of the West Indies next year as the WICB was no longer satisfied with the financial arrangements with Queen's Park, the private club that owns it.

He said Sabina Park in Jamaica, Bourda in Guyana, Kensington Oval in Barbados and the Recreation Ground in Antigua had been favoured.

Although Queen's Park has been earmarked for two of the five One-Day Internationals, the official added that the Board was prepared to bypass Trinidad for a Test for the first time in any major series since the first in 1928.

A WICB delegation comprising marketing committee chairman Teddy Griffith and director Chris Dehring and financial controller Richard Jodhan met with the club's executive in Port-of-Spain last week but no agreement was reached. Queen's Park are now expected to carry the issue to a special general meeting.

Alloy Lequay and Richard deSouza, the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board (TCCB) representatives on the WICB, are known to have already started canvassing for the WICB to change its decision while continuing negotiations with Queen's Park on a new deal.

Twice in recent years, the TTCB have accused the WICB of "calculated plots" against Trinidadian players, most recently captain Brian Lara. The present matter has the obvious potential for another head-to-head.

Queen's Park is under a different understanding to any of the other Test grounds in the West Indies as it is the only one wholly owned by a private club with whom the WICB negotiates directly.

The club receives US$85 000 annually from the WICB towards the upkeep of the ground and stands - in effect a rental fee - while Queen's Park's members, numbering nearly 3 000, do not pay entrance for international matches.

Queen's Park also collects on their members' purchase of lifetime tickets in the Jeffrey Stollmeyer and Sir Errol dos Santos Stands and, more recently, on the rental of several hospitality boxes.

While other territories receive three per cent of the gate receipts, with the remaining 97 per cent to the WICB, Trinidad and Tobago get eight per cent for international matches at Queen's Park.

The WICB is now pressing Queen's Park to charge members entrance fee, surrender its lifetime and reserved seats, reduce its share of gate receipts to five per cent and accept a reduction in its annual maintenance fee to US$20 000.

The WICB estimates that it receives nothing from between 5 000 and 6 000 spectators at major matches.

At 28 000, Queen's Park capacity is almost twice that of any of the other Test venues and, at one time, it was the most profitable. But the decline in crowds at Tests and in the value of the Trinidad dollar have been appreciably diminished returns.

It has staged 47 Tests, 13 more than Kensington and 12 more than Sabina.

It has often hosted two Tests in a season, including this year's series against England when it quickly filled the breach following the abandonment of the Sabina Park match because of a dangerous pitch.

Source :: The Barbados Nation (https://www.nationnews.com/)