The City of Greater Geelong will assist the Geelong Cricket Club in finding alternative match venues during the first half of its season while work takes place to rectify the centre wicket at the Geelong Cricket Ground.
The City hired specialist contractors to carry out turf wicket table renewal works at the ground, located at Kardinia Park, in April this year.
These works, which were fully funded by the City, are required every 20 years to maintain the wicket table to a regional level standard suitable for Premier Cricket.
The timing of the renewal shortly after the end of last cricket season aimed to have the wickets ready for play in time for the start of the 2024-25 season in October.
However, following the works, it was identified that the wicket levels appeared higher than the recommended levels for play.
City of Greater Geelong Executive Director City Infrastructure James Stirton:
It had been expected that the wicket table would return to the appropriate level with rolling ahead of the spring turf establishment and growth period.Unfortunately, this has not proven to be the case.
It means we've had no choice but to plan further works on the wicket table, which our contractor will carry out as soon as possible.
Regrettably it means the ground will not be available for play until January, which we can appreciate is very disappointing for Geelong Cricket Club.
We'll be working closely with the club to find alternative venues during the first half of the season.
