After years of planning, construction on a new turf wicket at Clarke Oval will begin later this month.
The plan to remove the existing hard wicket with a turf surface has been in the pipeline since Brendan Doyle took over as president of the Sunbury Cricket Club two and a half years ago.
Mr Doyle said he was delighted to see the dream be turned into a reality.
“For someone that grew up playing on turf myself, I felt for our club to have a point of difference and survive in a competitive market, we had to look at a move to playing turf cricket,” he said.
“It’s not only what it will do for the cricket club, but for the community of Sunbury.
“We know that there’s a number of local players that travel into town to play turf cricket, who’ve never had an option to play it locally.”
Sunbury made the move to the Victorian Turf Cricket Association from the Gisborne District Cricket Association three seasons ago and has been playing its home games at Progress Reserve in Coolaroo.
Project construction is expected to commence at Clarke Oval on Monday, October 18.
The reserve will be closed until April 1, 2021 to allow time for the new turf surface to be established.
Sunbury will continue to play its home matches as Progress Reserve until the surface is ready.
Oliver Lees
