A SPOKESPERSON FOR Cabinteely Cricket Club says the damage caused to their only pitch by a fire on Tuesday night could cost the south Dublin outfit up to €8,000 to repair.
In what they believe to be a deliberate act of vandalism, Cabinteely’s artificial playing surface was significantly damaged after bins were dragged from a local supermarket and the litter set on fire on top of the astroturf.
A spokesperson for the club, Krishna Mohan, told The42:
“We had a call from a passer by on Tuesday night, roughly around 11pm, and they said our cricket pitch was on fire.
“I called the president of the club because he lives quite close to Kilbogget Park. He went upstairs and could see smoke and fire so he called the Gardaí.
“They said that somebody had already reported the vandalism and that a few people had dragged dustbins from a supermarket in Ballybrack and put all the litter on top of the pitch and set it on fire.
“By the time the Gardai arrived there was nobody there so they called the fire brigade who put the fire out but it was too late by then as half of the pitch was already burned.”
Mohan said he is fearful the entire playing surface may now need to be replaced at significant cost and, with their first game of 2015 just months away, the four-year old club may lose their entire season.
“We’re just about to start the season, the first match isn’t scheduled until 19 April so we have three months to get it fixed. We’re trying our best to repair it because otherwise we’re going to lose our season as we’ve no alternative pitch.
“It’s astroturf and it cost us around €8,000 to install. If it has to be reinstalled it will cost us the same but, right now, we’re not sure if it is fixable or not as we’ve just called the installer to come in and investigate.”
Unfortunately, this is not the first incident of it’s kind for Cabinteely.
“There were a couple of incidents previously with cigarette butts being dropped on the pitch which only caused damage to three or four inches of the pitch. We called the pitch installer and he could fix it.
“There was another incident where a trolley was set on fire at the edge of the pitch but no harm was done that time as it was on the grass.”
