More than 60 cricket officials, players and VIP guests celebrated the opening of Manukau City Cricket Club’s new indoor training facility in Manurewa.
Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown spoke at the event alongside Manurewa-Papakura Councillor and Wiri Licensing Trust Deputy Chair Daniel Newman and MCCC President Mike Halliday.
Once the formalities were over, the guests could mix and mingle and check out the 1100-square-metre building at War Memorial Park in Manurewa. Some even took the opportunity to have a bat and a bowl in the nets.
Local players are already making good use of the indoor training centre, and Mike Halliday says MCC is in talks with Northern Districts Cricket and Counties Manukau Cricket to extend the use of the facility.
Read more: Indoor cricket training centre a first for South Auckland
“The players just love the facility. The best thing about it is that when it rains, we still train.”
Now the centre is open, the club can commit to running school holiday programmes in the April, July and September breaks as it will have an all-weather facility available.
Additionally, once the current season is over, MCC can start preparing for next year because they have space to coach and train players over the winter months.
Wiri Licensing Trust was one of the project’s backers, supporting the club’s applications to Trillian for funding. This has generated almost $500,000 for the training centre. The final cost for the facility, excluding Auckland Council contributions, is expected to exceed $750,000.
