Northland Cricket wants to continue to attract the superstars of world cricket to Cobham Oval, despite not staging any World Cup matches in 2015.
Although the one-day cricket World Cup venues have not been finalised, Greg Guy, the chairman of the Northland Cricket Association, confirmed Whangarei will not host anymatches in the tournament, co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand. "We won't be involved in the World Cup. There were application requirements beyond our means," said Guy.
Part of the hosting requirements were raising a $500,000 bond for the ICC.
However Phil Clarke from ICC World Cup 2015 said the allocation of World Cup matches had not been finalised. "We're still working through that process," he said.
Although Northland has missed out on hosting a World Cup match, newly appointed general manager of Northland Cricket Warren Marr said he wants Cobham Oval to host international matches.
"We have an international quality facility. With international cricket comes massive challenges. We intend to keep lobbying with New Zealand Cricket to keep international matches. We want to maintain the profile of international cricket," he said.
In the event that Cobham Oval was needed to host a World Cup match, Marr said Northland Cricket would be open to the idea."If New Zealand Cricket came to us and said we would like you to host a match we would look at it. It's an amazing thing for the community," he said.
In February, Cobham Oval hosted three T-20 matches between a New Zealand XI and England.
Stephen Cunis, Northland Cricket operations manager said Northland benefits from hosting international matches at Cobham Oval. The T-20s against England were "fantastic, huge for Northland Cricket", he said.
"We were happy with how things ran. The England team raved about our facilities. Northland hosting internationals gives cricket a huge profile in the region. Tourism from Northland benefits, money is brought in by tourism. Northland Cricket benefited financially from the England tour."
