Cricket Whanganui puts four new artificial wickets into Springvale Park

Workers were onsite on Tuesday. Photo / Bevan Conley

Concrete was laid this week for four new artificial cricket wickets at Springvale Park.

They will replace the existing strips, with one being completely realigned.

Cricket Whanganui general manager Pete Bowman said they had all been widened to three metres.

"That provides opportunities for seniors, with some of the big lads who come in [to bowl] on an angle, but also for the kids.

"They have more room to land the ball when they're developing their game."

The upgrade had been the work of Cricket Whanganui chairman Mark Lithgow and former general manager Jordan Healy, Bowman said.

"There's also been massive help from NZCT [New Zealand Community Trust] to help get these down."

One of the pitches ran along Parsons St but had been shifted to fit with its neighbour at the far end of Springvale Park, Bowman said.

All four grounds now have at least a 55 metre boundary, with overlap much less of a factor than previously.

"I had never seen big overlaps [in cricket grounds] before I came to New Zealand.

"Players are using much bigger bats these days, and even juniors can hit balls a very long way.

"My son is only 9 and he wants to play reverse sweeps all the time. I've even seen ramps on a Saturday morning."

Pete Bowman says cricket fields crossing over each other seems to be a New Zealand thing. Photo / Bevan Conley

The artificial turf will be laid in September.

Making sure the new surface had a similar feel to a grass wicket was important, Bowman said.

"In Canberra the council tested a particular grass that looked a lot like scouring pads.

"They were wonderful wickets because you could run on them in the pouring rain and not slip over. Unfortunately, because of the texture, the balls would just sit up.

"It became a bit of a T-ball competition."

Bowman said Springvale Park could now host Coastal Challenge games at the start of the year if required.

Senior cricket requires boundaries of 60 to 65 metres.

"We could have two here without any ground crossover. That's massive.

"Obviously Masters Games is back on next year as well. This will give us marvellous access for extra teams, and I'm certainly hoping we get more than we've had in the past."

There was the opportunity to explore bringing back some of the competitions Whanganui had in the past, and to launch a social mid-week competition.

"That's things like the under-15 girls particularly, and getting some of those Central Districts and national tournaments back here," Bowman said.

"I think that's really important for the development of us as an association to get back to where we were.

"I'm told so many stories of Whanganui being the jewel in the crown, where people want to come and play. Part of it is making sure our facilities are at that level."

Bowman said plans were afoot to launch a social midweek twilight competition.

"It would be T20 and at this stage I'm more encouraged to run an eight-a-side comp.

"The beauty of artificial is you don't have to worry about [pitch] preparation. If we were to use Victoria Park midweek, that would have implications as to how you rotate your wickets."