Benjamin's Park is a sporting venue in

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

Dominica Dominica ( or ; Kalinago: ; french: Dominique; Dominican Creole French: ), officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is an island country in the Caribbean. The capital, Roseau, is located on the western side of the island. It is geographically ...

, located away from the capital,

Roseau Roseau (Dominican Creole: ''Wozo'') is the capital and largest city of Dominica, with a population of 14,725 as of 2011. It is a small and compact urban settlement, in the Saint George parish and surrounded by the Caribbean Sea, the Roseau Ri ...

. The venue's primary use is as a

cricket ground Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

, and it has held home matches for the

Windward Islands french: Îles du Vent , image_name = , image_caption = ''Political'' Windward Islands. Clockwise: Dominica, Martinique, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Grenada. , image_alt = , locator_map = , location = Caribbean SeaNorth ...

, as well as several matches in regional tournaments.

History

What is now Benjamin's Park was originally designed as Portsmouth's main public square, according to the 1765 town plan laid out by a

Royal Engineer The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is a corps of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces and is heade ...

. During the 1980s, the park was the proposed site for a "multi-purpose community complex", financed entirely by the People's Republic of China. However, the Dominican government never agreed to the project. In January 2007, the ground hosted two home fixtures for the Windward Islands against

Barbados Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate). ...

, a four-day

Carib Beer Cup The Regional Four Day Competition, formerly known as Shell Shield and Carib Beer Cup, is the first-class cricket competition in the West Indies. It is administered by the Cricket West Indies. In the 2013-2014 season the winner of the tourname ...

match followed by a one-day KFC Cup match. The four-day game was the first first-class match played in Dominica since 2004, with Benjamin's Park becoming the third ground in Dominica to host first-class cricket (after

Windsor Park Windsor Park is a football stadium in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is the home ground of Linfield F.C. who own the land the stadium is built on, while the Irish Football Association own and operate the stadium and pay Linfield an annual rent ...

and the

Botanical Gardens A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens, an ...

, both in Roseau). Both matches were interrupted by rain, with the one-day fixture ending in a

no result The result in a game of cricket may be a "win" for one of the two teams playing, or a "tie". In the case of a limited overs game, the game can also end with "no result" if the game can't be finished on time (usually due to weather or bad ligh ...

, but the second day of the four-day match, a Sunday, saw an attendance of around 4,000. Benjamin's Park had been upgraded to

West Indies Cricket Board Cricket West Indies (CWI) is the governing body for cricket in the West Indies (a sporting confederation of over a dozen mainly English-speaking Caribbean countries and dependencies that once formed the British West Indies). It was originally ...

(WICB) standard with money from the Stanford 20/20 tournament, and was used while Windsor Park was being upgraded for the 2007 World Cup. In 2008, Benjamin's Park hosted a Windward Islands Tournament fixture for the first time, when

Saint Lucia Saint Lucia ( acf, Sent Lisi, french: Sainte-Lucie) is an island country of the West Indies in the eastern Caribbean. The island was previously called Iouanalao and later Hewanorra, names given by the native Arawaks and Caribs, two Amerindian ...

played

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Saint Vincent and the Grenadines () is an island country in the Caribbean. It is located in the southeast Windward Islands of the Lesser Antilles, which lie in the West Indies at the southern end of the eastern border of the Caribbean Sea wh ...

. It was again used for the competition during the 2012–13 season, but is yet to see any home games for the Dominican national side. When Bangladesh toured the West Indies in 2009, Benjamin's Park was used for a limited-overs game between the Bangladeshis and a

University of the West Indies The University of the West Indies (UWI), originally University College of the West Indies, is a public university system established to serve the higher education needs of the residents of 17 English-speaking countries and territories in th ...

Vice-Chancellor's XI, although the match did not have

list-A List A cricket is a classification of the limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competitions in which the numbe ...

status. In August 2014, the ground was used for a number of the matches in the WICB Regional Women's Championship, which was hosted by Dominica as a whole. Later in the year, in December, a new

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...

-sponsored training facility, the Dominica Cricket Academy, was opened at the ground."Dominica Cricket Academy officially launched"
– Government of the Commonwealth of Dominica. Retrieved 20 May 2015.

Records

First-class

* Highest team total: 183/9 dec. by

, 2006/07Windward Islands v Barbados
Carib Beer Cup 2006/07 – CricketArchive. Retrieved 20 May 2015. * Lowest team total: 91 all out by Windward Islands v Barbados, 2006/07 * Highest individual innings: 44 by

Dale Richards Dale Maurice Richards (born 16 July 1976) is a West Indian international cricketer who plays first class cricket for Barbados. A right-handed batsman, Richards debuted in 1999/2000. His highest first class score of 159 was made against Jamaica ...

for Barbados v Windward Islands, 2006/07 * Best bowling in an innings: 6/24 by

Pedro Collins Pedro Tyrone Collins (born 12 August 1976) is a cricket coach and former cricketer who played as a fast bowler for the West Indies. Collins also featured for Barbados, Surrey and Middlesex in his cricketing career. International career As a le ...

for Barbados v Windward Islands, 2006/07

List A

* Highest team total: 82/3 by Barbados v Windward Islands, 2006/07Windward Islands v Barbados
KFC Cup 2006/07 – CricketArchive. Retrieved 20 May 2015. * Lowest team total: 82/3 by Barbados v Windward Islands, 2006/07 * Highest individual innings: 27 by

Wayne Blackman Wayne Blackman (born 25 December 1975) is a Barbadian cricketer. He played in fifteen first-class cricket, first-class and seven List A cricket, List A matches for the Barbados national cricket team, Barbados cricket team from 1999 to 2007. See ...

for Barbados v Windward Islands, 2006/07 * Best bowling in an innings: 2/33 by Deighton Butler for Windward Islands v Barbados, 2006/07

References

{{reflist, 30em Cricket grounds in Dominica Football venues in Dominica Saint John Parish, Dominica

History

Records

First-class

List A

See also

References