SEVENTY YEARS OF HISTORY CANNOT BE WIPED AWAY SO EASILY
The famous lines from Bob Marley’s 1980 classic, “Zion Train”—“Two thousand years of history / Could not be wiped away so easily”—come to mind when one reflects on the demolition of the Mackenzie Sports Club’s clubhouse and main concrete pavilion.
For the people of Mackenzie, Linden, both at home and in the diaspora, the sentiment is clear: seventy years of history cannot be wiped away so easily.
Many have booked their tickets to return from overseas, while others across Guyana are preparing to travel to Linden for the grand year-end Kashif and Shanghai football fiesta. The tournament will undoubtedly attract large crowds to the rebuilt Mackenzie Sports Club venue.
Yet, amid the anticipation, an important question remains: what has become of the assurance that the MSC would remain a members’ club, particularly in light of reports that the venue would be renamed the Mackenzie Stadium?
Let us set aside the ownership issue for now and recall the words of Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Charles Ramson Jr., in 2020:
“I am happy to have the support from the MSC, the executive. We would like to do some work here, and it is important for me to do work in a collaborative way, where we get the support and cooperation from management and the members of the MSC.”
Those words carried weight and responsibility. In my view, however, the changes made to the MSC have not honoured the spirit of that commitment.
It must be remembered that, in 1956, the Demerara Bauxite Company Limited (DEMBA) donated a brand-new building to the MSC for use by its members and the wider community.
Many Lindeners, at home and abroad, are concerned that this historic venue is being transformed while its broader purpose is being overlooked.
Even if these expressions of concern fail to move those in authority, I challenge the Government to rebuild the MSC clubhouse and lounge, restoring the spaces that served its members and the community for generations.
Such a building should accommodate indoor activities, including table tennis, darts, badminton, chess, dominoes and whist, with an upper floor for meetings, ceremonies and other functions, as existed previously.
This proposal deserves serious consideration. The new seating accommodation has reduced an outfield that previously accommodated two football fields to one. The remaining space should be carefully assessed to determine how the club’s lost facilities can be restored.
A building constructed in 2026 may look more modern than one built in the 1950s. But appearance alone cannot determine whether a facility is better.
Can a venue now catering primarily for football and cricket truly be considered an improvement on one that accommodated those sports alongside volleyball, rugby, basketball, billiards, swimming, track and field, darts, hockey, boxing, dominoes, whist, bridge, chess and badminton, among other activities?
The central issue is the loss of the MSC’s multipurpose character. Reducing its range of activities cannot reasonably be presented as progress simply because the replacement structures are new.
Those unfamiliar with Mackenzie and Linden may not fully appreciate what the Mackenzie Sports Club means to the people who grew up using it. Its significance extends beyond the boundary of a playing field. It is tied to community life, recreation, sporting development and shared history.
The suggestion that only a newly constructed, cricket-style stadium can host international cricket also deserves scrutiny.
The recently held IMC World Over-40 Cricket competition in Guyana used venues such as Eve Leary, Malteenoes, Everest and the Georgetown Cricket Club ground. In my assessment, these grounds do not establish that the former MSC had to undergo such extensive structural changes to accommodate international competition.
The MSC itself hosted international youth cricket tournament matches during the 1970s and 1980s. That history should have informed an approach that improved the venue while preserving its wider functions.
Development should build upon a community’s heritage and expand its opportunities. At the MSC, that must include restoring the facilities that allowed members and residents to participate in a broad range of sporting, recreational and social activities.
In my next contribution, I will revisit the local, regional and international activities hosted at the Mackenzie Sports Club ground, and the many sportsmen and women who honed their skills there.
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Yours respectfully,
Joseph Chapman
General Secretary
Mackenzie Sports Club
