CRICKET will make its debut at the new Mildura Sporting Precinct in March when the venue hosts the Sunraysia Cricket Association (SCA) first division grand final.
SCA president Mick Thomson confirmed that the winners of the respective semi-finals will play off for the premiership at the Mildura South facility scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, March 26 and 27.
Renowned turf specialist Glen ‘Aussie’ Cumming and his team from Oasis Unmatched, who were responsible for the installation of the turf during construction, will help prepare the surface and pitch for use in 12 weeks’ time.
Players will get their first chance to assess the pitch when Sunraysia’s Melbourne Country Week squad will hold a training session on Thursday, February 10. Currently the grassy nature of the pitch looms as being a bowlers’ paradise but it remains to be seen how the surface will play.
SCA board member Richie Wyld said after the board got the full tour of the facility and saw how advanced the playing surface was, they put the question to MSP manager Don Harley to see if they could use the oval for this season’s grand final.
“It will be great having the first game (at the venue) being the grand final, a bigger occasion,” he said.
“It just looks like it’s ready to go. It’s now a bit of finer detail with the wicket block, scarifying everything out and rolling, but the outfield is better than anything else in town.
“We had a good chat with Aussie and he’s all over it. The outfield will get lower, they’ve already started prepping, there’ll be a bit of cross-rolling and everything else they need to do. Hopefully there’ll be a wicket up in four weeks.
“The grand final goes to whichever ground is generally the best performed for the year. It was almost always at number three, but it will probably end up leaning that way where it’s just always played out here.”
One SCA club will make MSP their home base, however no decision has been made as yet with official tenders likely to be made in the coming weeks. Future groundskeeping and pitch maintenance is likely to be in the hands of whichever club makes the move.
Thomson said it was “exciting” for the competition to have the new venue locked in.
“It’s spectacular really when you look at it,” he said.
“It is a very big thing, the board are all supportive of it, and now it’s full steam ahead.”
Future works at MSP will also include the installation of a second oval with a turf pitch, plus the installation of eight practise nets, four which will be turf and four synthetic.
It is hoped Cricket Victoria, who have made a financial contribution to the project, will utilise the facility.
