Vandals have been preying on the Goodyear Oval in St Thomas, stealing cricket equipment, steel, chairs, zinc and anything they can get their hands on.

The St Thomas Cricket Association is losing hundreds of thousands of dollars due to the vandals.

President of the association, Philbert Trenchfield, told THE STAR that ever since the passing of Hurricane Ivan, vandals have been plaguing the Oval, stealing even the chairs that were constructed in the stands.

The Goodyear Oval is the home base of the association and plays host to many cricket games. The venue is also used to host parties and other events and was the home for the popular East Fest show.

Because of its current dilapidated state however, Trenchfield says the association is unable to earn money from renting the venue. He said, "We started having problems after Ivan, couple years well. They steal everything you can think of. We have some covers that we use to cover the wickets and they cut off the covers. If you cover the wicket for a match tomorrow, by tonight they come and cut it off."

He lamented that one cover costs $390,000 and said the organisation spent more than $200,000 trying to repair what was left of the damaged cover.

Trenchfield also explained that the Oval is now roofless, after thieves made off with the entire aluminium roof. The seats, made from wood, that were bolted down, have also been stolen. Thieves have also made off with the iron pipe that runs atop the chain link fence which spans the grounds. He said, "They stole the zinc off the roof, the entire roof. I got a call one day to say that the roof was gone and up until today, we are looking up at the sun in the day and at the stars in the night."

not strange people

He added, "When you have people stealing things like the roof, that is to show you that we are dealing with some naive people. It's the same St Thomas people that are doing it, it is not strange people."

Trenchfield said it is hard to come by sponsorship to replace the building as businesspersons in the parish say they are unable to help. He said the funding received from the Jamaica Cricket Associ-ation is for the development of cricket, not for infrastructure. He said money for infrastructural development was provided by earnings made from rentals, but said since the end of the annual East Fest, things have fallen off.

He said in order to minimise the possibility of theft, 24-hour security guards have had to be employed when an event is near and preparations have been made.

This he said, however, was also expensive.

Superintendent Mervin McNabb, head of the St Thomas police, said he was not aware of the problem facing the organisation, despite Trenchfield telling THE STAR that reports had been made about the issue.

The superintendent who is new to the parish however, said he would love to assist the organisation and was willing to work something out. He said, "He can come and talk to me so we can put something in place. I wouldn't be able to put a 24-hour police watch, but in terms of my patrols that are in the area, we could give some satellite to his security apparatus when he's preparing for games. We'll be glad to do that."