Invest In Our Cricketing Future 

 

By Dino Cesta - 1 December 2014

THE NEWCASTLE HERALD - Letter To The Editor 

 

THE Newcastle region has a proud sporting history, having produced players at the elite international level across many sporting codes. 

 

Newcastle has also played host to international sporting events across our key national sporting codes – with the exception of Test match cricket.

 

Cricket is Australia’s game of summer. The smell of summer takes me back to my teenage years when I’d watch the ‘‘creme de la creme’’ of Northern NSW play against international touring teams at No.1 Sportsground.

 

Those days are long gone, as is, disappointingly,  the past tradition of touring cricket teams visiting our city. 

 

Newcastle has a rich history in the ‘‘gentleman’s game’’.  It’s time the ‘‘baggy green and gold’’ of Australian cricket enrich that history and play a Test match in our city. 

 

Rather than spending hundreds of millions of dollars truncating the Newcastle rail line, let’s divert some funding to enhance the facilities at the picturesque No.1 Sportsground to make it a world-class sporting and cricketing arena. 

 

The economic benefits of staging Test match cricket in Newcastle is immense.

 

The opportunity to inspire the next generation of young aspiring Novocastrians is priceless.

 

Sharon Claydon, Tim Crakanthorp, Nuatali Nelmes – let’s make this possibility a reality.

 

Dino Cesta, Hamilton