The prospect of Queenstown hosting next year’s Under-19 Cricket World Cup highlights a lack of sports facilities in the resort, club representatives say.
The Queenstown Lakes District Council’s community and services committee held a public-excluded discussion about the event at its meeting yesterday.
The council is expected to bid to host some games during the tournament, which is being held in New Zealand from January 12 to February 4.
But the apparent wish of organisers to take over the Queenstown Events Centre for two months before and during the tournament has cricket bosses worried.
Speaking at the meeting’s public forum, Queenstown Cricket Club chairman Clark Pirie said it supported any council efforts to bring cricket to the resort. But the prospect of hosting the event showed up a lack of sporting facilities in the area.
His club’s membership had risen from about 180 to 300 in the past three years, and was growing at a rate well above that for playing numbers nationwide.
Russell Mawhinney, organiser of the inaugural Queenstown Schools’ Cricket Carnival in January, said he was "very supportive" of the resort hosting Under-19 World Cup games.
They would be "quite inspirational" for the boys taking part in next year’s carnival, which would coincide with the Under-19 tournament.
But it was "just not acceptable" for its organisers to "lock down" the events centre for two months.
All the teams involved in this year’s carnival wanted it to be held annually, and he did not want its future jeopardised.
A $640,000 revamp of the playing surface of the centre’s Sir John Davies Oval was completed earlier this year, bringing the ground up to international playing standard for next summer. There has been no international cricket at the ground since 2014.
