Kensington Oval to open up to public view, discussion – PM

Kensington Oval is to hold an open day and a town hall meeting next week to highlight the storied cricket stadium’s renovations for the ICC T20 World Cup and address public concerns regarding next month’s competition, Prime Minister Mia Mottley announced Friday.

She made the disclosure to journalists at Ilaro Court where the Erdiston Teachers’ Training College signed a memorandum of understanding with the Columbia University Edmund W. Gordon Institute for Advanced Study.

Mottley, who urged Barbadians to be welcoming to the high number of visitors expected to be on the island for the tournament, said citizens themselves will get the opportunity shortly to tour the facilities to see for themselves the vast number of improvements that were carried out.

She said: “[Kensington Oval] is a national treasure, our cricketers are national treasures, and against that backdrop I have asked my office to have a town hall meeting, we are hoping it will be Wednesday afternoon, and out of that meeting [to organise] an open afternoon at Kensington. Let Bajans from all walks of life come and see what we have spent their money on.

“Come and see how Kensington looks, come and see how it’s been refreshed, come and see how we have made a difference to the quality of the infrastructure, but equally, let us have a conversation on the things that are of concern to us with respect to the hosting of this event, and with the respect to the hosting of other events, and how we can continue to create opportunities.”

The prime minister also disclosed that the event’s national organisers were urged to negotiate better pricing for vendors with the ICC for them to reap the full benefits from the number of matches scheduled here.

“We’ve sent our people back to renegotiate better rates for the vendors,” Mottley said. “The other would tell you that the rates that I saw, I know that that can’t work about here, because how much fish cakes you would have to sell, [and] how much food you would have to sell to pay that.

“Equally we recognise that there are other things that people would sell, and therefore there are vending opportunities outside of the stadium as well, but then people will also be in Bridgetown, people will be in Holetown, people will be in Oistins, people will be in Speightstown, people will be at the airport, and therefore we have to be able to get back the art of being able to engage with our people and create the business opportunities out of the platform that is there.” (SB)