NZC lashes Eden Park
New Zealand Cricket has made public its damning assessment of Eden Park, and backed a redeveloped Western Springs as the future home of cricket in Auckland.
In a submission to the Auckland Council as part of Regional Facilities Auckland’s Venue Development Strategy, NZC chief executive David White said Auckland would continue to be overlooked for Black Caps matches until a viable alternative was found.
Eden Park hosted the day-night test against England in March but only because of its capacity, and White said recently it would not be considered to host any of the five Black Caps tests next summer, against Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. The cost of hiring the multi-purpose venue made it a ‘‘challenge financially’’ to stage test cricket there.
‘‘Auckland is currently missing out significantly on international cricket exposure due, primarily, to the lack of a cost-effective, financially viable venue,’’ White wrote in NZC’s submission.
‘‘Eden Park, the only ICC-sanctioned arena in New Zealand’s most populous city, is unaffordable for all but the biggest and, by definition, the rarest of international cricket fixtures.
‘‘Additionally, Eden Park’s small size and rectangular, football-shaped playing field continually risks compromising the integrity of cricket matches hosted there. Resource consent restrictions and a lack of fan-friendly, cricket-specific features at the arena limits NZC’s ability to schedule a greater number of games in the city.’’
White confirmed Western Springs Stadium – which currently hosts speedway and club rugby – was NZC’s preferred choice, given the proposed new waterfront stadium would be rectangular and not able to be used for cricket.
‘‘This facility has the potential to become the country’s leading international cricket venue, as well as possibly accommodating NZC as a long-term tenant, and becoming a high-performance base for servicing professional men’s and women’s players. With NZC headquarters already located in Auckland, and the North Island lacking a dedicated, elite cricket training venue, the value of the latter point cannot be under-estimated.’’
On Monday, NZC, New Zealand Rugby, the Warriors, New Zealand Football, the Blues, the NRL and the AFL all came out in support of mayor Phil Goff’s Venue Development Strategy, aimed at tackling Auckland’s ageing stadium infrastructure.
Exactly what that will look like however remained to be seen as controversy over a $1 million pre-feasibility report from PwC into a waterfront stadium continued to swirl.