By Prealene Khera
With the completion of a significant upgrade, the St Albans Sports Club is now ready to offer game-changing training to all players.
The club’s new $633,000 multi-purpose facility opened to the public recently — boasting six synthetic wickets and retractable nets.
This state-of-the-art facility is expected to help cricket players of all levels hone their skills, while also providing a space for casual play.
According to the club’s general manager Jonathon Halliday, the upgrade has been highly anticipated.
“It’s much grander, bigger and better than anybody could have ever expected,” he said.
Being multi-purpose means this facility can also be used for other sports like netball and soccer, helping to improve access to much needed facilities, and increase sporting participation for the whole community, Mr Halliday said.
“It replaced an unusable piece of very aged infrastructure and while it repaired an old cricket nets facility, this is now much more than that — it’s for other sports as well,” he said.
“It’ll become an excellent community asset as a result of that.”
Mr Halliday said the facility will put the entire club on the map.
“It’s probably one of the best pieces of cricket nets and multipurpose infrastructure you’ll see around,” he said.
“We are very proud of it.
“It’s come at a great expense to us and we are going to manage and maintain it.”
The St Albans Sports Club contributed more than $533,000 for the project, with the state government putting up the remaining $100,000.
Beyond just being renowned for the new space, Mr Halliday said it would also attract new people to the grounds.
“There’s a couple of teams who train close-by, and I think they’ll want to have a go at this facility,” he said.
“It’s one of the best things Kings Park has had in a long time.
“I think it’ll be the envy of a lot of clubs, and it’ll also be a big drawcard for a lot of new players for the cricket club.”
Mayor Thuy Dang also celebrated the opening of the facility.
“It’s really an investment into the health and wellbeing of our whole community,” she said.
