In a draft draw obtained by the Otago Daily Times, the venue has been pencilled in to host a Plunket Shield match between Otago and Northern Districts beginning on November 24, as well as two twenty20 games during the Christmas break.
Molyneux Park was a regular fixture on the domestic calendar during the 1980s and 1990s but fell out of vogue with administrators.
The supply of first-class games dried up following the development of Dunedin’s University Oval and concerns about the pitch resulted in the venue losing its New Zealand Cricket warrant of fitness in 2009 and again in 2011.
Its warrant was reinstated in 2012 and it has hosted three one-day games and three T20 games in the past five years.
Those games have been in the window between Christmas and the New Year and have generally attracted good crowds.
The amount of cricket played at the venue might have remained at that level had it not been for the efforts of Otago coach Rob Walter and Otago Country Cricket chairman Malcolm Jones.
Walter, who took over the Volts head coaching role last season, was impressed by the venue during a pre-season training camp in Alexandra.
He put together a proposal to play more cricket at the venue, while Jones prepared an economic impact report in the hope of convincing the Central Otago District Council to put more resources into an asset he argued contributed about $220,000 to the local economy each season.
For the past few months, the Otago Cricket Association has been lobbying the CODC to improve the facilities at Molyneux Park in order to bring the venue up to first-class standards.
There are many little improvements that need to be made but the main task is to reconfigure the changing rooms, Jones said.
"The warrant of fitness tells us we need 60sqm of dressing room per team and that is what we are trying to achieve," Jones said.
"We are working really hard with the council, who have been really supportive. So we are just going through final designs and what is required at the moment.
"About 15 years ago when they were last modified, there were 12 players, a coach and a manager. Now they’ve got 13 or 14 players, three or four management staff, including the physio, and their gear bags have got bigger.
"So it is a work-on and we are working on it."
The changing rooms will, more or less, need to double in size.
A new electronic scoreboard and sightscreens are also on the wish list. The planned renovation for the main wicket block will need to go ahead as scheduled, and the venue will have to increase the number of practice pitches available.
The attraction of playing first-class cricket in Alexandra is obvious — it is the driest region in Otago. To play under the baking Central sun, rather than in Dunedin which is often wet, would give the Volts more time to force results and, ultimately, give them a better chance of winning the competition for the first time since 1988.
