Easter rivalry
Editorial
Guyana Chronicle
April 9, 2007
EASTER Monday in Guyana has traditionally been a huge crowd puller when thousands upon thousands flock the sea walls along the coast and open spaces around the country to fly kites, or just to hang out with family or friends.
There are usually kite competitions with kite flyers vying for prizes for the smallest, largest, most colourful, or noisiest or a host of other categories of kites.
Easter Monday has its own powerful kind of attraction that brings out the teeming masses, but it’s in for some rivalry today.
And that competition for attention comes from the new Guyana National Stadium at Providence, where the final of the six Super Eight matches in the Cricket World Cup 2007 tournament hosted there is to be played today between Ireland and New Zealand.
The stadium is not likely to see the kind of crowds that throng the Georgetown seawall, for example, on Easter Monday, but given what has gone on there in the run-up to today’s climax its attraction would extend to TV sets in living rooms across the country and around the world.
The stadium at Providence has already etched its place in cricket annals and the lure of today’s fixture is -- will it be another historic clash?
Bangladesh on Thursday etched the latest cricketing milestone at the venue, when the number nine rated team beat the world’s number one, South Africa, for the biggest upset at the ground.
Providence had before that produced the first international helmet trick and first joint CWC man-of-the-match.
And the biggest Super Eight crowd attended the West Indies/Sri Lanka match.
So, there’s a lot of attention that would be focussed on the stadium at Providence today, even as the Guyanese Easter kite flying holds sway.
Providence has held its own against rains - the old nemesis of cricket in Guyana - and if the weather proves to be a bit unpleasant for getting the kites out and up, play at the stadium is not likely to be affected.
Whatever is the result in today’s cricket match between Ireland and New Zealand, it would be a deserved celebration for Guyana.
And despite the rivalry between kite flying fun and the cricket, what better way to celebrate the climax at Providence than celebrating on Easter Monday?
The Easter message, by a wonderful coincidence, fits in with the resurgent spirit that Providence has provided for Guyanese and all those who laboured against extreme odds to pull off these CWC Super Eight matches.
Happy Easter all!