A new indoor cricket facility will rise at War Memorial Park in Manurewa.
It will be built on the site of what is now the nets training area, where it cost Auckland Council $315,000 to put the foundation down.
Manurewa Local Board chair Matt Winiata says the agreement effectively transfers the site to the Manurewa Cricket Club and makes a grant of that amount to it.
“No money changes hands, it’s just an accounting measure, but more importantly, the club can get on with building a facility it has long sought.
“While it is primarily an indoor cricket facility, it can be made available by the club to other groups.
“We believe sharing facilities has to be the way forward, and thankfully many sporting groups across the area have willingly engaged in that, meaning they don’t all have to try to raise money for clubrooms and the like, when other clubs already have them.
“We are particularly seeing a willingness for winter codes to share with summer ones. There’s little point in having expensive facilities that sit empty or are largely unused in a code’s off-season.”
The proposed building will be built in colour steel over about 1200 square metres of the park, which is also home to Manurewa AFC and the Homai Bowling Club.
War Memorial Park was originally identified as the board’s ‘One Local Board Initiative’ for the construction of a multi-sport facility. However, COVID-19 and changing economic circumstances changed priorities, with the board revising the initiative to support the cricket facility by funding the concrete slab.
“We would dearly love to be doing more but we are all aware of the financial constraints currently in place. What we can’t do is nothing, so proceeding with projects like this one means we are making progress,” Winiata says.
The deal means the club will still have to find the funding for the build but gives it a 10-year lease over the land, with a 10-year right of renewal.
Documents from the 1920s record the Manurewa Cricket and Hockey Club. In 1965, with council amalgamations, it became Manukau City Cricket Club, but went full circle around 2006, reverting to the Manurewa Cricket Club.
Today it is one of the larger clubs affiliated to Counties Manukau Cricket.
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