T20 World Cup conditions are pitch perfect

THERE is less than a fortnight until some of the world’s best cricketers square up at Kardinia Park, and a key part of the infrastructure needed is now in place.

On Wednesday last week, a crane was used to install two drop-in pitches inside the stadium, which will host the opening two matches of this year’s men’s T20 World Cup.

Four sides – Namibia, Netherlands, Sri Lanka and United Arab Emirates – will play their group games at the stadium, with double-headers scheduled on three days.

The tournament’s first game, Sri Lanka v Namibia, will begin at 3pm on Sunday, October 16, followed by United Arab Emirates vs Netherlands at 7pm.

Kardinia Park Stadium Trust chief executive officer Gerard Griffin said the cricket pitches were kept just to the south of the stadium during footy season, and were installed in two pieces each in the middle of the ground.

The pitches have since been rolled, cross-rolled and watered ahead of use.

Mr Griffin said the installation had gone very smoothly, taking only about four hours, and setting the rest of the stadium up for the T20 World Cup was well under way.

“We’ve got most of the team now working on finishing the preparations to get the place ready – there’s a lot of signage to go up, there is some other LED signage to go on the field of play, we’ve got scaffolds to go up to dress the construction site, we’ve got scaffolds to go up for the sightscreen at the northern end, we’ve already put the sightsreen in at the southern end, so it’s very much installing all the bits and pieces that make the venue a cricket venue.

“The other fields [at Kardinia Park] will get used, so the [City of Greater Geelong] council are also preparing those fields for practice.

“It’s basically a sprint now until Saturday the 15th when the teams will start using this to train.”

He said early indications were a capacity crowd of between 15,000 to 20,000 would come to the tournament opener.

“That’s very pleasing. There’s a very strong Sri Lankan fraternity that we expect to see

both locally and come from Melbourne to support their team, so they’ll be top billing on that day.”

Works at the stadium began on Sunday, the day after major tenant the Geelong Cats won this year’s AFL Grand Final.

“It’s what venues like us have to be these days,” Mr Griffin said.

“It will be a first for this stadium to have [international cricket and AFL] so close together, but it’s not unusual now when you’re asked to be a multi-purpose stadium.

“I go back earlier in the year to when we had six events in about 13 days, and the most notable of those was the Foo Fighters.”

For more information on the T20 World Cup games in Geelong or to buy tickets, head to t20worldcup.com