Kardinia Park in Geelong is set to become the 11th International cricket venue in Australia next year. The T20 International series which going to be held from February 17 to 22 between hosts Australia and Sri Lanka will feature three matches to be hosted in Melbourne, Adelaide, and Geelong. Cricket Australia is taking a rather bold step to officiate International matches in places apart from the state capitals. The last two times when Australia held International matches away from state capitals was in 2003 and 2004 against Sri Lanka and Bangladesh respectively in Cairns. During the 1992 World Cup, regional venues had officiated neutral matches meanwhile Launceston, Davenport, and Townsville have all hosted International ties which did not involve Australia.
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The biggest game Kardinia Park witnessed was in last summer when the Melbourne Stars and the Melbourne Renegades played a warm-up match ahead of the Big Bash League season. The West Indies also played a two-day warm-up match against Victoria XI in the build up to the Boxing Day Test match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
While speaking to Cricket Australia’s official website, ICC official James Sutherland said, "We're committed to taking the game to as many parts of the country as possible and we continue to work with regional areas around Australia on how we can make this happen. Geelong proved its capability to host cricket last summer with a successful BBL exhibition match between the Melbourne Stars and Melbourne Renegades attracting more than 10,000 people.”
"We're really looking forward to the people of the Geelong region and beyond packing out the stadium and supporting the women's and men's national sides”, he added.
As per traditional ground configurations, the boundaries were too short, but later Sutherland was pleased that the requirements were met and gave a green signal to the Simonds Stadium, the other name of Kardinia Park.
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As a warm-up match, Sri Lanka will play a T20 game on the occasion of the annual Prime Minister’s XI on February at the Manuka Oval, in Canberra. It was also learnt that Adelaide to going to host an International match on Australia Day every summer for the next five years.
"We've been working closely with the South Australian Government and SACA to secure marquee matches in the state long term and we'd like to thank both parties for their support. We're pleased to be able to announce today that Adelaide Oval will host an International Australia Day cricket fixture for the next five years” said Sutherland.
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