Council opens Casey’s first synthetic surface for cricket

City of Casey Mayor Cr Sam Aziz was joined by Victorian Minister for Sport the Hon John Eren MP to officially open the $4.2 million project which included the construction of a floodlit synthetic cricket and football oval, two netball courts, cricket practice nets, a sports pavilion and car parking.

Funded by the City of Casey in partnership with AFL Victoria, Cricket Australia, Cricket Victoria and the Victorian Government, the new synthetic surface for football and cricket is the first of its kind in Casey and just the second in Victoria, giving local sporting clubs access to a facility that can be used more than turf surfaces, is safer and conveniently remains green all year round.

The reserve will be home to the Carlisle Park Vikings Cricket Club, youth girls football squads, South East Juniors (SEJ) Umpires Association and a number of SEJ representative team squads, and Cranbourne Carlisle Primary School will also make regular use of the facility.

Cr Aziz said, “In addition to the synthetic oval, the project delivered two netball courts, cricket practice nets and a new sports pavilion which has two female-friendly AFL and cricket changerooms, which can also be used as a multi-purpose space, and two dedicated netball changerooms.

“The pavilion has a kitchen, store areas, a scorer’s box, office space, player, umpire, referee and public amenities, covered viewing areas and access paths, with accessibility and provision for users of all abilities being the key design drivers.

The Mayor added that the new reserve demonstrated Council’s commitment to delivering quality, state-of-the-art facilities for the local community.

“The City of Casey provides a variety of first class sport, leisure, aquatic, health and fitness facilities across the municipality that enable all members of the community to get active, learn new skills or just have fun,” Cr Aziz said.