Cricket club plans elite cricket training facility

CALOUNDRA Cricket Club is building the Elite Training Centre: a multi-purpose indoor facility modelled on the Australian Centre of Excellence at Brisbane’s Allan Border Oval.

BIG PLANS: John Deacon and Mick Davis, from Caloundra Cricket Club, near where the new elite training centre will be built. Picture: Patrick Woods

CALOUNDRA Cricket Club is building the Elite Training Centre: a multi-purpose indoor facility modelled on the Australian Centre of Excellence at Brisbane's Allan Border Oval.

With the completion date roughly June next year, the centre will be the first of its kind on the Sunshine Coast.

Caloundra club spokesman Mick Davis said the centre would cost $350,000 to build, and "we're roughly $150,000 away from completion".

Mick said the centre would go a long way to supplying a facility the Coast was lacking. The infrastructure would mean four new nets and indoor synthetic pitches at Caloundra's disposal.

Mick said that as well as being primarily used by Caloundra's players, the centre could be used by other players for representative and all-weather training.

Currimundi Special School students and Coast-based Compass Institute, which supports young Queenslanders with a disability, also would use the facility.

The club has received $200,000 from Sunshine Coast Council but more financial assistance and fundraising is required from other sources.

Mick said the club had been using its sponsorship with Golden Beach Tavern to hold fundraising nights and raffles, which had proved successful. He encouraged people to donate or assist through sponsorship deals on Caloundra's fundraiser website at http://www.youcaring.com/caloundra-cricket-club-386706.

- BRAD ILOTT and SHIRLEY SINCLAIR