New Centre of Excellence for Cricket at Olympic Park announced
The NSW Government today announced it will make a major contribution to a new Centre of Excellence in Western Sydney, set to be the first permanent home for Cricket NSW.
This high-performance cricket Centre of Excellence will be located at Wilson Park, Homebush in the Sydney Olympic Park precinct.
A dedicated facility for performance and development of cricketing talent and grassroots participation in NSW, the Centre will include a full-size oval, new cricket centre with indoor and outdoor cricket nets and the offices of Cricket NSW.
Minister for Sport Stuart Ayres said the Centre will play a vital role in cementing NSW as Australia’s premier cricketing state.
“Cricket been part of our homes for longer than we can remember but it has never had its own home in NSW, today that changes,” Mr Ayres said.
“NSW has always been a driving force in developing cricketing talent for the Australian team with many of the sport’s greats coming from NSW. Participation rates remain extremely strong with numbers up more than 70 per cent since 2011.
“Female participation in cricket continues to grow, with 60% of new players across NSW being women. The explosion in growth has been extraordinary with more leagues available to women and girls.”
Wilson Park will also provide a new home for both the men’s and women’s Sydney Thunder T20 teams with up to $30 Million invested into the new facility, funded from future property developments at Sydney Olympic Park.
Cricket NSW Chief Executive Officer Andrew Jones thanked the Government for its strong support of cricket. “This is a landmark day for NSW cricket. NSW produces the best cricketers, male and female, in Australia and they will now have the best facility in Australia to train,” Mr. Jones said.
“With added community access, the facility will also accommodate indoor training and matches for men, women, boys and girls all over Sydney, driving participation.
“The new facility will allow us to have a modern high performance centre with a cricket field and plenty of turf nets to cater for the increased number of elite and developing players now coming through our pathway system,” said Mr Jones.
Funding for the NSW Centres of Excellence was developed for local communities to provide multi-purpose facilities that offer promising young athletes and high performance athletes with world-class training and development in their local area.
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