A Georgetown story

	The way we were: the board that lists the Test matches played at the Bourda © Getty Images

By Andrew McGlashan

During the 2007 World Cup an English journalist angered the local media with some less-than-flattering remarks about Georgetown so I’m going to be very careful about what I say here. I don’t fancy a knock on the door in the middle of the night.

Having spent a day in the capital chasing around preview interviews I’ve soaked up some of the flavour of the city. It’s a little like going back in time with the colonial-style wooden buildings which line the street and the horse-drawn carriages that still do a lot of work here, but it’s a bustling commercial district with a huge amount of traffic for a city with a population of around 250,000. The horses often move quicker than the cars.

There remain plenty of reminders to the history of the area, from the cities name itself which stems from King George III in 1812, to the main Regent Street in the centre to the sluices built by the Dutch to keep the sea water out.

The Providence Stadium is now the new home of cricket in Georgetown, but previously it was the famous Bourda ground in the centre of town. I hope to pay a visit before I leave, but that will have to wait after Sri Lanka moved their planned training session back to the new ground.

So instead of the practice session I made my way to the main hotel in the city for a press conference with Chris Gayle via a walk along the sea wall. You are quickly reminded that the concrete wall plays a vital role with Georgetown below sea level as you see the Atlantic Ocean stretching out into the distance. Canals wind their way through the wide streets while the wide, brown, fast-flowing Demerara River (which includes the largest floating bridge in the world) is a centre-point to the local industries.

The staging of World Twenty20 matches here is a real boost for the country which, as a few locals have said, sometimes feels left out in favour of the more ‘glamorous’ Caribbean locations. It is one of the reasons why ticket sales have been so strong for the three days of action and putting the hosts here has certainly provided a boost. They have heroes in the current national team in the shape of Ramnaresh Sarwan and Shivnarine Chanderpaul and would dearly love to witness them star in a successful West Indies team.

There was a reminder of West Indies’ glorious past in the Pegasus Hotel as Clive Lloyd and Joel Garner milled around reception. Garner recognised one of the people I was with (I could have lied and said it was me, but let’s try and keep some reality here) and came over to say hello, before extending his greeting with a crunching handshake.

As he welcomed us all to Guyana and hoped we would enjoy our stay, you couldn’t help but imagine what it would have been to like to face him thundering in with a new ball never mind knowing there was also Croft, Marshall and Holding waiting as well. That was a long time ago, yet the images they created remain etched into the memories. West Indies are unlikely to see the like again, but those greats of the past should still be a huge inspiration to the future generation.