“It’s been awesome to have this great facility in Hawke’s Bay. I think Central Districts have been waiting for this sort of opportunity for a long time and it’s awesome to have a New Zealand A camp here. We’ve got two camps here and it’s awesome to be training on grass at this time of year.”
NZC chief executive Scott Weenink said he was delighted that players are able to travel to the Bay to access these facilities outside of the traditional cricket season.
“It’s great to have the Hastings training facility up and running and playing host to a New Zealand A winter training camp this week,” he said.
“The Hastings covered turf training facility is part of a NZC strategic plan to enable our male and female players to train year-round, rain or shine, on turf wickets.
“We currently have four of these facilities in New Zealand, and we plan to build two more to ensure we have full coverage across the New Zealand cricket network.
“We believe this cutting-edge high-performance technology will continue to put us at the forefront of innovation in developing world-class cricketers.”
For Central Districts Cricket Association chief executive Lance Hamilton, it’s great news, less than a year after the facilities opened.
“We’ve received some really positive feedback around the surfaces over the first couple of days. It’s amazing to think with the weather we’ve been having in the lead-up and then the cold, frosty weather we’ve been having in the last week or so, that to be on grass on the first week in August is unbelievable,” he says.
“It bodes well for the future. These facilities are amazing around what they offer us around skill development and stuff like that, especially local kids and development and pathway players getting access to the facilities that we’ve got at the Regional Sports Park now. It’s a great time to be involved in cricket.”
With the facilities and accommodation providing a one-stop shop, Hamilton is hoping that these camps are just the start of NZC’s visits to Hastings, following their investment in its construction.
“It was amazing that New Zealand Cricket invested in these structures around the network. Given we’re a primarily top-down funded sport, we’re so reliant on the Blackcaps and White Ferns doing well and being on television and being successful, so New Zealand Cricket have invested in hopefully their own future as well by creating these facilities which are going to help to accelerate the development of our players.”