CAUGHT AND BOLD
T20 international in the bag – now it’s time for Big Bash
CRICKET Australia boss James Sutherland has foreshadowed a growing role for the Gold Coast in Australian cricket, with the Big Bash League to arrive as early as next season.
Sutherland fronted the media at Carrara yesterday to confirm the Coast’s first international fixture in November, with talk quickly turning to the potential arrival of BBL action.
Sutherland said Metricon Stadium’s rise as an international-standard venue, as well as the growth of the BBL from 10 to 14 matches for each team, meant more elite cricket in the city was inevitable.
“We’re excited at the opportunity of playing BBL matches in different parts of the country,” he said.
GOLD Coast Dolphins president Jeff Pfaff has emerged as the unsung hero in bringing international cricket to the Glitter Strip.
Yesterday’s announcement of a T20 between Australia and South Africa at Carrara’s Metricon Stadium on November 17 was the culmination of four years of hard slog from the 20-year Dolphins figurehead.
The game is the first step in a strategy devised by Pfaff, Gold Coast City Council and AFL’s Gold Coast Suns to deliver regular elite cricket for the city, with the Dolphins’ Bill Pippen Oval headquarters poised to play a major role as a support venue.
Council has already agreed to commit $250,000 to a $1.25 million upgrade of the Robina facility to bring it up to Tier 2 status, which would cater for matches of any kind excluding men’s international fixtures.
“I got involved in 2014. We hosted the Aussie women in the T20 series against Pakistan at Robina and not long after that we hosted Ireland for a training camp prior to the 2015 World Cup,” Pfaff said.
“It was at that point, because Council had helped us with some infrastructure and attracting people to come to the Coast, we started talking
more with them about getting more elite cricket to the Coast.
“The Suns had been looking at cricket for a while to maximise Metricon, so we joined up strategies to have a complete cricket offering for the Coast. We want Bill Pippen to be to Metricon what Allan Border Field is to the Gabba.
“Then it links (the plan) to the grassroots as well, it’s not just big time cricket coming and playing a game once or twice a year. It’s been a long road and it’s still going because Metricon is still the first piece in the puzzle, now it’s about getting Bill Pippen up to standard.
“I think the international game will be massive for the Coast. Hopefully, the Coast gets behind it and it shows Cricket Australia there’s a big market for cricket here. We’ve got a great opportunity.”
With next season’s Big Bash League growing from 10 games per team to 14, expansion has been put on the backburner.
Pfaff believe the Coast will be ready to pounce if and when the opportunity arises.
“I think having a Gold Coast team would be brilliant. It would be a great venue, particularly because we’ve got Metricon but also a big population and it’s played in summer when a lot of people are here anyway.
“I don’t subscribe that Gold Coast is a graveyard for national teams, this is different product and a different time of year. It’d be fantastic.”
While the funds required for the Bill Pippen Oval upgrade are still being secured, Pfaff hopes the changes are in place for the 2019-20 season.