Seven cricket pitches City Care is contracted to prepare have been declared substandard.
The grass wickets at Tonga Park, Brooklands Park, the Oval and the No1 wicket at Sunnyvale have been ruled out of play until they can be brought up to the required standard.
Despite a stretch of fine weather, Dunedin City Council acting group manager of parks and recreation Richard Saunders said City Care had failed to deliver suitable surfaces.
"What has gone wrong unfortunately is our contractors have not got those pitches up to the appropriate standard, which is very disappointing," Mr Saunders said.
"As you well know we had issues with the pitches last year and we did a lot of work with them to make sure they were fit for use this year.
One senior cricketer said the pitch at Sunnyvale was in the worst condition he had seen.
"The divots from the softness of the wicket dry out and go quite hard and it actually makes it quite dangerous because the ball hits them and they can fly past your ears off a good length.
"I don’t think I’ve seen so many batsmen get hit.
"Normally, guys can get out of the road.
"All it takes is for someone to get one in the throat and it could cause a serious injury.
"They have fully made the right decision."
All senior games scheduled at those venues this weekend have been moved to other grounds and the council is working with the Dunedin Cricket Association to manage the scheduling in the lead-up to Christmas.
The condition of the pitches was so poor the council has been compelled to take action and is reviewing its contract with City Care.
"We are going through a contract process with [City Care] at the moment so I won’t comment on that until that process is finished," Mr Saunders said.
"But we have taken the step of bringing in Delta to have a look at those pitches.
"We are confident in the condition of their pitches in the north of the city, so we are happy they have the ability to undertake that work for us."
Early last year City Care was awarded the contract to prepare the cricket grounds in the southern section of the city with Delta winning the contract to prepare the grounds in the north.
The cricket association met council staff earlier this week to raise concerns about the state of the pitches in the southern half of the city.
"These concerns were based on reports from captains, umpires and concerns expressed by some clubs," the association said in a brief statement.
"[While the closures affect] the ability of the DCA to provide cricket on grass pitches for clubs, it is essential that the surfaces they play on are of the required and agreed standard.
"We will continue to work through this matter with the DCC."
A spokeswoman for Christchurch based City Care said the company was committed to ensuring pitches were prepared to contract specifications.
"We have got our specialist technical staff evaluating the cricket wickets at the moment."
