The Kayman Sankar Cricket Ground is a sporting venue in Hamptoncourtpolder, a village on the Atlantic coastline of

Guyana Guyana ( or ), officially the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern mainland of South America. Guyana is an indigenous word which means "Land of Many Waters". The capital city is Georgetown. Guyana is bordered by the ...

Pomeroon-Supenaam Pomeroon-Supenaam (Region 2) is a region of Guyana. Venezuela claims the territory as part of Guayana Esequiba. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the north, the region of Essequibo Islands-West Demerara to the east, the region of Cuyuni-Mazaruni ...

region. Its chief use has been as a

cricket 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 ...

ground, though in recent years it has also hosted

grasstrack Motorcycle Grasstrack is a form of track racing which typically, in its current form, takes place on a flat track consisting of two straights and two bends usually constructed in a field. It is one of the oldest types of motorcycle sports in the ...

motorcycle racing. The ground was developed entirely by Kayman Sankar, a rice farmer who founded the Kayman Sankar Group of Companies and owned large amounts of land near Hampton Court, where his rice mill was located. At his own expense, Sankar "flew entire teams and reporters to Hampton Court to play four-day and one-day matches" at the ground, which, as the only major ground in Guyana west of the

Essequibo River The Essequibo River (Spanish: ''Río Esequibo'' originally called by Alonso de Ojeda ''Río Dulce'') is the largest river in Guyana, and the largest river between the Orinoco and Amazon. Rising in the Acarai Mountains near the Brazil–Guyana bor ...

, was located a good distance from the capital Georgetown and the other major population centres in

Demerara Demerara ( nl, Demerary, ) is a historical region in the Guianas, on the north coast of South America, now part of the country of Guyana. It was a colony of the Dutch West India Company between 1745 and 1792 and a colony of the Dutch state fro ...

and

Berbice Berbice is a region along the Berbice River in Guyana, which was between 1627 and 1792 a colony of the Dutch West India Company and between 1792 to 1815 a colony of the Dutch state. After having been ceded to the United Kingdom of Great Britain ...

."Kayman Sankar – Humantarian (sic) and supporter of sports"
– ''Kaieteur News''. Retrieved 18 December 2014. Sankar was the first president of the Essequibo Cricket Board (an affiliate of the

Guyana Cricket Board The Guyana Cricket Board is the ruling body for cricket in Guyana. Guyana Cricket Board The Guyana Cricket Board has regions who play cricket in the Country. Below is the history of the regions of certain cricket boards in the country. And also ...

), and the Essequibo cricket team first played at his ground during the 1977–78 edition of the inter-county Jones Cup, against

. The ground served as a regular venue for Essequibo until the early 2000s, and the inaugural first-class match played there was the October 1980 final of the Jones Cup, between Essequibo and

.First-class matches played on Kayman Sankar Cricket Ground, Hampton Court (22)
– CricketArchive. Retrieved 19 December 2014. Only the final of that tournament was accorded first-class status, and Essequibo, the weakest of the three counties, made the final only once. With team and media expenses met by Sankar, the ground hosted

Shell Shield 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 ...

matches for the Guyanese national side in 1985, 1986, and 1988, and matches in the

limited overs Limited overs cricket, also known as one-day cricket or white ball cricket, is a version of the sport of cricket in which a match is generally completed in one day. There are a number of formats, including List A cricket (8-hour games), Twenty ...

Geddes Grant Shield The Super50 Cup, currently named the CG Insurance Super50 Cup for sponsorship purposes is the domestic one-day cricket competition in the West Indies. It was previously known as the KFC Cup until the fast food chain pulled out of sponsorship in ...

in 1988 and 1989. The ground was used regularly for Guyana's one-day matches during the 1990s, with at least one match played there every year from 1994 to 1998 (two matches were played during both the 1994–95 and 1996–97 seasons).List A matches played on Kayman Sankar Cricket Ground, Hampton Court (11)
– CricketArchive. Retrieved 19 December 2014. Its last major matches came during the 2004–05 season – a first-class match against the

Leeward Islands french: Îles-Sous-le-Vent , image_name = , image_caption = ''Political'' Leeward Islands. Clockwise: Antigua and Barbuda, Guadeloupe, Saint kitts and Nevis. , image_alt = , locator_map = , location = Caribbean SeaNorth Atlantic Ocean , coor ...

and a one-day game against 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 ...

. A number of well-known

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

international players played for their respective national teams at the ground during the 1990s, including Ian Bishop,

Brian Lara Brian Charles Lara, (born 2 May 1969) is a Trinidadian former international cricketer, widely acknowledged as one of the greatest batsmen of all time. He topped the Test batting rankings on several occasions and holds several cricketing reco ...

(both

Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago (, ), officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean. Consisting of the main islands Trinidad and Tobago, and numerous much smaller islands, it is situated south of ...

Joel Garner Joel Garner (born 16 December 1952) is a former West Indian cricketer, and a member of the highly regarded late 1970s and early 1980s West Indies cricket teams. Garner is the highest ranked One Day International bowler according to the ICC bes ...

(

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). ...

Carl Hooper Carl Llewelyn Hooper (born 15 December 1966) is a former Guyanese cricketer who captained the West Indies in Tests and ODIs. An all-rounder, he was a right-handed batsman and off-spin bowler, who came to prominence in the late 1980s in a side ...

(Guyana), and

Richie Richardson Sir Richard Benjamin Richardson, KCN (born 12 January 1962) is a former West Indies international cricketer and a former captain of the West Indian cricket team. He was a flamboyant batsman and superb player of fast bowling. He was famous for ...

(Leeward Islands). Although the venue is no longer used for high-level cricket in Essequibo, with a ground in

Anna Regina Anna Regina is the capital of the Pomeroon-Supenaam Region of Guyana. Anna Regina stands on the Atlantic coast, northwest of the mouth of the Essequibo River, 19 km north of Adventure, and was established as a town in 1970. Its population w ...

being preferred, it has more recently hosted several meets for the National Grasstrack Racing Club (NGRC).(16 June 2012)
"NGRC to host 3rd Meet of the year"
– ''Kaieteur News''. Retrieved 19 December 2014.

References

{{reflist, 30em Cricket grounds in Guyana Pomeroon-Supenaam