{"id":191560,"date":"2023-12-05T14:59:06","date_gmt":"2023-12-05T18:59:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/?p=191560"},"modified":"2023-12-05T14:59:06","modified_gmt":"2023-12-05T18:59:06","slug":"time-marches-on-at-the-antigua-ground-where-history-stands-still","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/time-marches-on-at-the-antigua-ground-where-history-stands-still\/","title":{"rendered":"Time marches on at the Antigua ground where history stands still"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a><\/div>
\"\"<\/a><\/div>

ESPN-CRICINFO- by Cameron Ponsonby<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>

\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n
The Rude Boy stand has been taken down at the ARG. The once-famous double-decker terrace that housed Antigua’s greatest music entertainers is gone. Replaced instead with two shipping containers and a lorry trailer. The prison watchtower that stands over the road, where the legend goes that Viv Richards’s dad would stand and watch his son bat in the middle whilst keeping one eye on the prisoners under his guard, has had its view improved immeasurably. Nothing now in its way, but nothing now to see either.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
“You had music from morning to night,” says James Stevens, Head of the Antiguan Umpire’s Association for the last 24 years and chance interviewee after he saw two English lads stumbling around the famous and dilapidated Antigua Recreation Ground<\/div>\n
“We had Gravy and Mayfield and the music,” Stevens recalls, reflecting on the famous names of those who performed outside the boundary rope of the ARG, as much as he does those that performed within it. “As a matter of fact, DJ Chickie the music master got man of the match in an\u00a0India v West Indies game.<\/a>\u00a0You had three days rained out and he kept the crowd lively throughout the days.”<\/div>\n
For someone who doesn’t believe in ghosts, a trip to The Rec is to have a go on a Ouija board for a laugh, only to feel your stomach jolt when the thing moves. The place is dense with history and with signs of life everywhere you look aside from the one place it matters. A shop within the grounds has three men sitting drinking a beer and eating some lunch, while the pavilion itself still operates in an administrative capacity. In fact, as England and West Indies\u00a0were playing their first ODI on Sunday,<\/a>\u00a0the latest set of aspiring Level 3 umpires in the region were taking their final exams there. Something that Stevens himself would be overseeing, adding that that’s why he wouldn’t be in attendance at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium himself.<\/div>\n