By Marcus Uhe
Casey South Melbourne Cricket Club president Shaun Petrie declared the new pavilion at Casey Fields “the best thing I’ve ever seen” following its long-awaited opening on Saturday 4 November.
Cranbourne MP Pauline Richards, City of Casey Chair of Administrators Noelene Duff and Cricket Victoria Chief Executive Nick Cummins were among the key dignitaries on hand to open the pavilion on Saturday prior to hosting the WBBL contest between the Melbourne Stars and the Sydney Thunder.
The redeveloped multipurpose pavilion at ovals four and five has female friendly player change rooms, medical testing facilities, a dedicated first aid room, a media room, an indoor training space and an office and administrative space, jointly funded by the City of Casey, the Victorian Government Community Cricket Program and Cricket Victoria.
Petrie believes the facility will set the benchmark for Premier Cricket clubs and is excited for the opportunities the new space will afford after a difficult period for the club while the facility was under construction.
“It’s what Premier Cricket clubs should have, but what we’ve got is probably the best,” he said.
“We’ve been running the club basically out of people’s car boots.
“We had a shipping container where everything was stored and we couldn’t get to it half the time, it was an absolute nightmare.
“The big spacious change rooms will accommodate women, which is pretty important, we didn’t have that before.
“The scorers have their own rooms, there’s two beautiful viewing areas for both grounds, so it’s going to be amazing.”
Of significance for Petrie is the ability to showcase the club’s history and memorabilia at the pavilion and facilitate the growth of the club’s social platform.
The pavilion can seat roughly 180 people according to Petrie and is a major improvement on what they operated with previous to the redevelopment.
“We had very small change rooms and no real social area where we could hold functions, and that’s been the case since we moved out there,” Petrie said.
“The club has worked extremely hard to maintain that connection between players, parents and supporters but it’s been incredibly difficult, because we’ve got nowhere to meet, basically.
“That’s the fabric of cricket clubs, footy clubs everywhere, (and) without that, you’ve got nothing.
“The club’s been going since 1862 so you can imagine the types of incredible memorabilia that we have, and we haven’t been able to present it anywhere. Now we can.
“Down the track once it gets organised we’d like to be able to offer that space to other sporting clubs, community groups.”
Speaking at the opening, Duff said the pavilion will help the City of Casey become one of Cricket Victoria’s “premier metropolitan cricket and community precincts.”
““These upgrades have transformed this space into a multi-use community facility to benefit the precinct’s multiple users,” Duff said.
“Particularly, the inclusion of female friendly and accessible facility designs means that we are better equipped to support various users now and into the future.”
