Boutique cricket ground on the agenda for Auckland

Eden Park has proven capable of hosting short-form cricket, but Auckland Cricket want a boutique test venue. Photo / Getty

Auckland Cricket is determined the country's biggest city will get a boutique-style test venue.

That will stay AC's position, irrespective of how the proposed stadium reshuffle unfolds.

The idea of league, speedway and cricket upping sticks and shifting between each other's long-established bases took a twist at the weekend, with the Warriors insisting they are in the process of locking in a 10-year deal to stay at Mt Smart Stadium, the ground it has called home since its arrival in the NRL in 1995.

Speedway are starting to sound more bullish about sitting tight at Western Springs, which has been earmarked as a test cricket venue for test cricket by Regional Facilities Auckland.

Eden Park is Auckland's cricket headquarters and the sport is keen to stay there. AC is based there, the No 2 ground is home for all domestic cricket; the main oval is used for international limited-overs internationals, and did host the big-ticket England and Indian tests early in 2013 and last year, the first test since 2006.

However, unless it is a rare outing against a big international player, Auckland usually misses out when test venues are handed out. AC chief executive Mark Cameron says Auckland is being excluded from the test match list as it doesn't have a suitable ground to cater for five-day games.

"What Auckland needs is a boutique test venue, that 8-10,000 type venue that brings out what is most appealing about test cricket, and so we're very supportive of a strategy that would see us with an international test venue," Cameron said.

Western Springs is top of Cameron's list of logical locations for a smaller test venue - the RFA has allocated $12 million out of its $30 million overall stadium strategy on the cricket portion of the proposal - but with ODI and T20 internationals staying at Eden Park, domestic cricket remaining on the outer ground.

"You'd want to be reasonably close to the centre of town, have reasonable infrastructure, transport and motorways, and restaurants and bars. So there's a lot of appeal."

Should a hold be put on the reshuffle, even though a chunk of taxpayer money is sitting in an account ready to be unlocked, Cameron would be reluctant to accept it.

"We would want to still maintain dialogue that would see test cricket available to Aucklanders. We would ensure it stays on the agenda."

The Warriors sitting tight at Mt Smart Stadium didn't necessarily derail the whole ripple like process.

"I'm sure the Warriors are very appreciative [of staying at Mt Smart] but it doesn't mean speedway can't go to another venue."

Cameron doubted speedway and cricket could co-exist at Western Springs, simply due to the amount of development work that would be needed.

On one point, he is immovable.

"We are the biggest province, the biggest city and you can't exclude us from that element of cricket. It's too important, so we won't just be accepting the status quo."