Could the Gabba wicket be moved to Victoria Park stadium?
The Gabba’s famous wicket could survive the stadium’s demolition and be moved to the new Brisbane Stadium at Victoria Park, Queensland Sports Minister Tim Mander said on Thursday following a suggestion from an Australian Test cricket star.
Helping launch the state government’s discussion paper on Queensland’s sports strategy in the lead-up to Brisbane 2032, Test cricketer Marnus Labuschagne said there was sadness around the impending Gabba demolition.
“The stadium has been a part of the history, but the wicket is what makes it special,” he said.
Marnus Labuschagne on the famous wicket at November’s Gabba Test against India.Credit: Chris Hyde/Getty Images
“I think if we can keep the wicket and keep the characteristics of the Gabba pitch, which has made Australia so successful in Brisbane for a long period of time, that’ll then transcend [to] the new era of Brisbane cricket and Test matches.”
Labuschagne noted shifting the wicket would not be unprecedented.
“We played the [Sheffield] Shield final on a wicket that we play on at Adelaide Oval,” he said.
“They just dropped the wicket in from Adelaide Oval into Karen Rolton [Oval], where the Shield final was, so stranger things can happen.”
Asked about Labuschagne’s suggestion, Mander said the government would be open to the idea.
“Look, nothing is beyond possibilities nowadays,” he said.
“But I want to say one of the other things, and I’m not going to disagree with Marnus, obviously – he’s out there playing it – but one of the great advantages of playing in Brisbane is a Queensland crowd.
“Playing in front of a home crowd, particularly with the first Test, which we want to get back here after the Games, is really, really important. That’s a tradition in this country.”
Former Gabba curator Kevin Mitchell kept the famous wicket in top shape from 1990 to 2017.Credit: Tony Moore
The Crisafulli government accepted the Games Independent Infrastructure and Coordination Authority’s recommendation to build a 63,000-seat stadium at Victoria Park, breaking an election commitment in the process.
The location of the venue, to be named Brisbane Stadium, was yet to be determined.
The Save Victoria Park community group has vowed to maintain its campaign against the stadium, despite the state government introducing overriding legislation to ensure all Olympic-related development was legal.
The proposal met fierce and vocal community opposition, backed by former premier Campbell Newman and former lord mayors Jim Soorley and Sallyanne Atkinson among others, concerned about the loss of inner-city green space.
Victoria Park had been recommended in a 60-day venues review headed by former Brisbane lord mayor Graham Quirk last year, but then-premier Steven Miles instead chose the old QEII Stadium at Nathan, now called the Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre, as Brisbane 2032’s main stadium.
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