Plans for cricket centre in city ‘stagnate’ over different preferences for site

PLANS to build a $1.1 million centre of cricket excellence at Logan Park have stalled, Otago Cricket Association (OCA) chief executive Mike Coggan says.

The OCA partnered with Otago Polytechnic in May in the hope of building an allweather facility which would serve as both a training facility and a centre for education.

Under the proposal, the ‘‘winter marquee’’ would house 12 to 14 grass pitches and was to be located on some excess Dunedin City Council land Otago Tennis no longer needed.

The DCC appeared to warm to the idea initially. Coggan was hopefully the council would make a decision regarding the use of the land in August.

That would have provided the certainty needed to push on with the project.

But Coggan told the Otago

Daily Times yesterday the council want the OCA to investigate other locations.

‘‘We’ve had continued dialogue with the DCC but the city council don’t share the same view as we do as to the preference for sites,’’ Coggan said.

‘‘What they’ve done is ask us to go and look at some alternative sites for where a centre might be positioned.

‘‘Whatever we do it is going to require a partnership approach

with the council to achieve what we would like.’’

Coggan feels strongly that the association will need allweather pitches to keep pace with the other five major associations.

‘‘They will become, over time, a requirement for New Zealand Cricket for international and domestic venues to suitably support teams playing here during [poor weather], so we’re a little bit behind the other MAs [major associations].’’

Coggan said potential sites at the likes of Tonga Park or Sunnyvale would require building over sports grounds, ‘‘so our preference remains for those [unused] tennis courts’’.

‘‘But I don’t think the council quite share our vision for that site.

‘‘[The project] hasn’t gone backwards but it has stagnated.

‘‘We want to be able to go back to the council in the next sort of week or weekandahalf with our alternatives. But that does not mean we don’t have a strong preference for our first option.’’