Face-lift for Achimota cricket oval

A grader working on the Achimota cricket oval

An Indian philanthropist and cricketer is constructing what could become Ghana’s first-ever world class cricket oval at the Achimota Secondary School.

Mr Akoliya Patel, a businessman, is almost through with the first phase of the GHc 150,000 project which is being undertaken by Greg Packers Incorporated, a sports surface specialist.

The UK-based company with its subsidiary in Ghana is filling the leveled field with lariat and later with black soil to prepare the land for grassing.

The grassing begins by the ending of the month hoping that the pitch will be ready by July. Attached to the pitch would be a standard pavilion for officials and fans to sit and watch matches.

Mr Patel told the Graphic Sports he was touched by the country’s recent performance at some of the sub-regional competition and believes that with the right pitch Ghana could soon join the continent’s big guns in the sport.

He owns two crickets teams, BGC (Balaji Group) 1 and 2, one of which is currently leading on the log in the T-20 league.

The Indian, as a way of giving hope to talented cricketers, have employed some of the players in his company and have been facilitating the training regimen of the boys by giving them allowances.

He told the Graphic Sports he has also drawn up a programme for maintaining the pitch to make it attractive for countries in the sub-region to use.

Mr Patel said he was talks with the Ghana Cricket Association to officially handover the pitch to Ghana and also push for the hosting of major competitions in the country to make the game popular.