Taranaki Cricket hopes to stay at Pukekura Park
Options including the use of temporary facilities will be explored over the next year as Taranaki Cricket desperately works towards keeping the right to host domestic games at Pukekura Park.
Taranaki Cricket Association general manager Ryan Evans said it would be working closely with the New Plymouth District Council to find potential solutions after New Zealand Cricket threatened to blacklist the ground beyond next season.
‘‘Taranaki Cricket has aspirations for the park, and we would really like to see it developed and become suitable to host women’s international matches, as well as lower tier age-group internationals,’’ Evans said.
‘‘If you can secure those sorts of matches we believe it can provide some great exposure for New Plymouth and what better advertisement could you have than the views across the city from our magnificent park.’’
However, before any of that would be possible the association would need the district council to invest in some solutions to NZ Cricket’s demands.
In a submission to the council on the future of Pukekura Park, NZ Cricket made it clear there were several areas that needed addressing for the ground to host fixtures in the future.
They include extending the playing surface to meet minimum boundary sizes, changing facilities to cater for at least 16 people per team, dining areas to cater for up to four teams, match official changing rooms and work spaces, broadcast infrastructure and commentary positions as well as upgrading the outfield’s drainage.
Evans said it was important for the promotion of the sport in the region for domestic matches to continue to be played after next season.
They would be using the time available to them to see what could be brought in as temporary facilities to satisfy the majority of what the national cricket body wants.
‘‘The message from New Zealand Cricket is really clear, but I believe in Taranaki we are the sort of people who really have a can do attitude, and we want to see what we can do,’’ he said.
Taranaki Cricket’s preferred option was to see the proposed community pavilion, into which it had considerable input, built to meet several of NZ Cricket’s ground criteria.
Beyond that, it would work with the council to see what the feasibility of increasing the playing surface looked like.
More than 600 submissions were received by the council on its Pukekura Park discussion document, which canvassed an array of ideas for the future of the park and the Bowl of Brooklands.
New Plymouth District Council group manager of planning and infrastructure Kevin Strongman said the submission process was to ‘‘sense check’’ the ideas with the community.
However, there would be no heightened sense of urgency shown in reaction to NZ Cricket’s demands with Strongman saying they would look at another round of feedback next year before it would ‘‘inform’’ councillors of options as it looked ahead to its next long-term plan budget for 2024-34.