Vin­ode Mam­chan

For the past 20 odd years con­stituents of Siparia have had to deal with a ter­ri­ble eye­sore, smack in the mid­dle of the town, that be­ing the much loved Ir­win Park. This park would have pro­duced some top ath­letes in the past but was now be­ing used for a to­ken foot­ball match and even more for il­lic­it ac­tiv­i­ties. For many years there has been a cry from res­i­dents for the park to be up­grad­ed so that life could come back to High Street, Siparia.

Well, their pro­longed calls land­ed on the ears of chair­man Leo Dood­nath and by the end of this month, de­mo­li­tion work would be­gin at the venue. The fa­cil­i­ty will be re­placed by a spank­ing new Re­gion­al Sports Com­plex. Dood­nath, com­ing from a very strong back­ground in sports and be­ing the cur­rent pres­i­dent of the South Zon­al Crick­et Coun­cil and a for­mer ex­ec­u­tive mem­ber of the T&T Crick­et Board, saw the need for a sport­ing fa­cil­i­ty in the area to re­place the old Ir­win Park and from then he start­ed to lob­by.

It was with great pride that Dood­nath walked out of his of­fice in­to the hot sun last Wednes­day to meet with of­fi­cials of the Sportt as they vis­it­ed the park to con­duct pre-ten­der pro­ce­dures with a host of con­trac­tors. "I am very hap­py to see what is hap­pen­ing here to­day. For 20 years the peo­ple of Siparia longed for a prop­er fa­cil­i­ty and to­day marks an im­por­tant day. It is a day that opens up the park for a great re­make. In fact, we are go­ing to have a Re­gion­al Sports Fa­cil­i­ty here.

"What would give me an even greater feel­ing is when it is com­plet­ed and peo­ple start to pack in­to the venue. Life would come back here and the best way to do that is have this fa­cil­i­ty up to stan­dard. "I live not too far from the park and I can tell you that days gone by, here was a hive of ac­tiv­i­ty and peo­ple com­ing from all over the coun­try to com­pete against our ath­letes here.

"Sports is such an im­por­tant part of the hu­man de­vel­op­ment and with all the knowl­edge be­ing cir­cu­lat­ed out there about liv­ing a healthy life, we can now af­ford our peo­ple here a place to utilise in their bid to be­come healthy. "The Re­gion­al Com­plex would not on­ly be used by ath­letes but every­one in and around Siparia. Peo­ple may just want to come out and have a walk and we are cater­ing for that. The fa­cil­i­ty al­so have lights, so that fam­i­lies can come out at nights and spend qual­i­ty time par­tic­i­pat­ing in sports."

This park has served as a cen­tral spot for the com­mu­ni­ty, com­ing alive on af­ter­noons and on the week­ends with ath­letes and sports sup­port­ers gath­er­ing here. Ven­dors sell­ing food and oth­er items set up shop near­by, along with a very busy taxi stand. One of the biggest at­trac­tions at the park will be the cy­cle track. Cy­cling has seen an up­surge in par­tic­i­pa­tion in Siparia since the rise of na­tion­al star and home­town boy Njisane Phillips. Now the youths will have a world class cy­cle track to train on.

With a space for jog­gers, a foot­ball field, pool, crick­et pitch, bas­ket­ball court and an old cy­cling track, this park has pro­duced some of the coun­try's top sports per­son­al­i­ties. Dood­nath ex­plained what was to come: "It will have a new cy­cling track, a jog­ging track and up­grade of the oth­er fa­cil­i­ties. Mon­u­ments of out­stand­ing per­son­al­i­ties will be placed strate­gi­cal­ly around the park." Siparia is home to Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar and she re­marked: "Af­ter all this is my con­stituen­cy I was born and grew up op­po­site the park, so it is home to me and I am glad to see that it will be up­grad­ed."

Ir­win Park, which was named af­ter a for­mer war­den of St Patrick, has pro­duced Olympic long dis­tance run­ner Ian Mor­ris. Bids for phase one of the up­grade will be closed on No­vem­ber 7 and work is ex­pect­ed to be­gin at the end of the month. The first phase would en­tail de­mo­li­tion of the old pavil­ion and board­ing off of the foot­ball field and new pavil­ion.