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Centralised Venues?

Tuesday, March 25 2003

Auckland coach Mark O'Donnell is calling for centralised venues in the early stages of the season. He believes that the superior pitch conditions at the High Performance Centre at Lincoln University could be better utilised.

O'Donnell doesn't believe that having all the games at Lincoln would give Canterbury home advantage because they never play there. He maintains that it is most important for the players to have good ground conditions.

Conditions improve after christmas generally, and Pukekura Park in New Plymouth was the best pitch that Auckland came across according to O'Donnell. He also mentioned that Queenstown was a good pitch.

The question has to be asked though- was it just a bad year for pitches in New Zealand. There was obviously a problem with the groundsmen putting too much moisture into the pitches this year as they strived for pacey wickets. The result was disastrous as demonstrated in the international series against India.

Is it worth taking the game away from the fans (apart from the people of the Lincoln area who would get a bombardment of cricket). We all want to see good cricket played, is O'Donnell's suggestion the only way forward? Or can we trust that next season the groundsmen will get it right?

It's likely to be a hot topic when the coaches meet for the annual review of the season in Christchurch.

Posted by Kim