Geelong Cricket Club will have to play their home games elsewhere until January

Geelong Cricket Club’s top tier team will have to play home games in Melbourne following ongoing issues with centre wicket works at Kardinia Park.

Geelong’s Danesh Mehta bowls to Dandenong batsman Max Marinic at Kardinia Park. Picture: Mark Wilson

The Geelong Cricket Club will have to play its first grade home games in Melbourne for the opening half of the season due to ongoing issues with centre wicket works at Kardinia Park.

The Cats will consult with other clubs and local schools for access to an extra two grounds so it can play lower level games locally in 2024-25, including its women’s program, before cricket can return to Geelong Cricket Ground in January.

The City of Greater Geelong hired specialist contractors to carry out turf wicket table renewal works in April this year.

The works, funded by the council, are required every 20 years to maintain the wicket table to a regional level standard for Premier Cricket.

And the initial plan was for the works to be completed in time for the start of the 2024-25 season in early October.

However, the council realised after the works were completed that the wicket levels appeared higher than recommended for levels of play.

Geelong Cricket Ground is classified as a regional sporting facility and is the only dedicated ground in the city for Premier Cricket.

Geelong’s Joshua Larkin is bowled by Dandenong’s Vish Ramkumar at Kardinia Park in February. Picture: Mark Wilson

The council’s executive director of city infrastructure James Stirton said it was expected the wicket table would return to the appropriate level with rolling ahead of the turf establishment and growth period.

“Unfortunately, this has not proven to be the case,” Stirton said.

“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.”

Geelong will still have full access to its second ground, Anthony Costa Oval, at Kardinia Park, but it is not up to Cricket Victoria standards for first or second grade.

It will still be used for third and fourth grade matches.

The club’s director of cricket Travis Agg said the club was disappointed by the turn of events but was grateful the wicket was being rejuvenated and replaced.

“In an ideal world we’re not in this situation, but for the long term benefit of cricket at Geelong Cricket Ground, the club’s really excited about what the future holds having the new facility,” Agg said.

“And whilst there’s some short term pain ... in three months time people will have moved on and we’ll have first class facilities.”

Originally published as Geelong Cricket Club will have to play their home games elsewhere until January