A NEW NATIONAL cricket stadium has been approved by the government with the aim to have a 4,000-capacity venue completed by 2028.
A high performance centre is also part of the ambitious project, which will have its planning and design completed by the middle of next year.
Cricket Ireland will co-host the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup with England and Scotland in 2030, and this new facility is to be located in the National Sports Campus in Blanchardstown, west Dublin.
It will deliver a permanent home for cricket in Ireland that meets the International Cricket Council requirements for hosting major cricket events and competitions.
Warren Deutrom, Cricket Ireland’s chief executive, hailed the announcement as “probably up there in terms of significance with the day that we became a Full Member of the ICC.”
He added: “It is a tribute to the enormous growth that the sport has enjoyed over the last 10 to 15 years at all levels of the game. Not just nationally, but provincially and at club level.
“These facilities will help drive the sport forward – they will significantly assist our highest performing players nationally and provincially to prepare, train and perform better on the world stage.”
Crickets FFS should be investing in our athletics, swimming, rowing teams etc
@Daithi De Barra: yep Olympic events should be getting money (like cricket)
@Daithi De Barra: €266 million (record amount) will be allocated to a plethora of sports. Progress is being made by Dept of Sport. Olympics medals and PB’s proves that
As a massive cricket fan I’ve really glad to see this. A 4000 seater for a world cup match as a co host seems a bit small though (I guess depending on who plays in that match) good news all the same in growing the game.
@Stuart: They’d want to be reclining seats.
@Stuart: guess the 4000, is more aimed at future test matches rather than a few one off games, no point having a big staium, only half filled for future games.
Should invest all that money into athletics in ireland. Some of the grants the athletes get in this country are a disgrace.
@Darren Murphy: can we not invest in cricket and athletics?
@Ian Cunningham: we can if we take money from the sports that get overfunded.
@Darren Murphy: GAA (football particularly, which is a game in decline as a (non-International) spectacle, Horse Racing and Greyhounds, you mean… :-)
@Sea Point: 100%. Giving grants to people who mistreat animals. Not all but some.
@JagTune: If you or a family member need medical treatment in hospital, you’ll be thankful for their expertise. HSE not good but would be even worse without our friends from South Asia
Cricket is one of the biggest expanding sports in this country. Why not invest. There seems to be plenty of dough in the pie for all sports. I’ve tried watching it, not my cup of tea though
@WqM9AAv3: Expanding. Never seen anyone playing it in the local park.
@WqM9AAv3: think the issue with Cricket is that it’s not an all Ireland sport at Club level. So many sports fans will pay attention if Ireland are competing, but the Irish first class games aren’t of interest because most occasional cricket fans aren’t members of the clubs that supply players into the “Interpro” squads, and the provinces are effectively Two from Ulster, Leinster and Munster team (made up mostly from players from Leinster & Ulster, much like their rugby team in fact… :-D ). With Leinster only playing their games in Dublin, and Munster in Cork…
It’s an Olympic sport for LA 2028? Sure why not invest
@colin coady: Its a relatively new sport in this country. Far too long the athletes from this country have been shafted. They have to look after themselves 365 days a year 24/7. No off season were they go on the lash for a couple of months like other sports. The great late Jerry kiernan called this out years ago and he was dead right.
@Darren Murphy: cricket has been in Ireland since before the GAA was established. Kilkenny and Tipperary were full of cricket clubs before the GAA took over.
@Joe O’Regan: So basically what your saying is cricket was played all over ireland and the GAA culled it. Nonsense, but you might be on to something there it wouldnt be the first sport they tried to stop young people playing.
@Darren Murphy: all over Tipp and Kilkenny. The landlords had a team per estate. Their workers played on the teams. I think Tipp had 45 crickets teams and Kilkenny something similar. Only about 3 cricket clubs in Tipp now and 2 are reasonably new.
When the GAA was established their was an immediate draw to playing organised hurling as part of the Gaelic revival in the late 1800s.
All I’m saying is cricket is not new to Ireland. It is a minority sport compared with the big 3 sporting organisations.
@Darren Murphy: Cricket was big in Ireland after the famine.
https://www.quora.com/How-popular-is-cricket-in-Ireland/answer/Joe-Mangan-2?ch=15&oid=205939322&share=0b503679&srid=ofOep&target_type=answer
@Warren Conlon Grant: I think your confusing it with rounders. Rounders was great craic in school. Maybe we should build a national stadium for rounders.
Your point is irrevelant it doesnt deserve a national stadium. We didnt have a 50 metre pool for decades and now we are going building a stadium for cricket at the drop of a hat.
@Joe O’Regan: god, when you think how superior Hurling is to cricket as a spectacle, you wonder how the GAA has failed to spread Hurling beyond the borders of the traditional strongholds . Cricket is probably easier to pick up but really hurling should be an international sport,
@Michael Corkery: there doesn’t seem to be a will within the GAA to grow hurling. That’s why Donal Og has hits rants on RTE.
Paudi Butler and Martin Fogarty were very good national hurling directors and their contracts weren’t renewed.
Since fogarty left there is no one in the role. Incredible that the GAA wouldn’t appoint even one person to it.
@Michael Corkery: Hurling is too difficult to pick up for children and beginners. Games like football and rugby are much easier to play at a basic level.
@Michael Corkery: International sport your having a laugh. If it was that great a game you wouldnt need to promote it, people would just take it up. You think soccer was promoted around the world, everyone just started playing it.
@Michael Corkery: Probably the reason none of the GAA sports are played internationally is because the big wigs in Croke Park want it that way, it would mean that if their games became International then they would lose control of how the sports were organised and run. Can anyone think of an international sport that’s run solely from one country without involvement from any other.
@Leonard Barry: If people watched a game of hurling from another country and thought it was amazing they would just go down the park and play it. They wouldnt need the GAAs permission. Your not going to see people playing it in parks around the world because they just dont get it.
@Bert Carolan: it is difficult but rugby isn’t easy either at least in terms of the rules. Obviously rugby, football, cricket were spread in the colonies but then only a few of the colonies picked up rugby (NZ, AUS, SA) while others had no interest (India, PK) and others who were not colonized FRA, ARG, Japan are avid rugby nations now. It’s more complicated. We really should have spread hurling through the diaspora in the UK and USA but I agree with those who claim the GAA felt their interests were better served by not spreading the game. I’m a big rugby fan but hurling is the greatest field sport in the world
@Darren Murphy: if people watched a game of cricket, they would switch off the TV and try and forget what they saw so I’m not sure what point you’re trying to make. Cricket is probably an easier game to pick up and might actually be quite pleasant to play but it’s a pure bore fest to watch. 9t’s really dull. Baseball just as bad
@Darren Murphy: How do you know? Do you speak for the rest of the world??
@Michael Corkery: Some people prefer to watch 15 hairy, burly men grapple with each other and some prefer to watch a more technical and cerebral sport like cricket. Some of us can even manage to enjoy both. Cracking game up in Belfast the other week and Ireland have some very handy cricketers despite the challenges they have. Decent forecast for Sunday so I shall be strolling along to Stormont to watch the women play Sri Lanka in a One Day International.
@Justin Robinson: I’ve never watched more than 5mins of cricket but I had the enormous displeasure of attending a baseball game in the US. What a borefest made even worse than the piss poor beer being served up. Most people had their back to the actual game, it’s a day out, the sport is secondary to most but a very small number of interested spectators. I might be wrong but I imagine cricket is like this
@Michael Corkery: Rugby seems like that sometimes, no? Bit random to tar tens of thousands of people with the same brush. You could be at the cricket from 10am to 7pm. Not unusual to want to move around a bit. I reckon I’ve been to games when I’ve barely moved at all and I recall a game against the Windies at Lord’s when I watched the entire afternoon session on the big screen with my best mate and drank rum and Coke. Some guys will ‘score’ every single ball as cricket probably attracts more nerds than any other. Been to a couple of baseball games but American crowds are inevitably different to other nationalities. My wife didn’t like cricket until we watched all five days in Cape Town in 2016.
@JagTune: was down the wellfare office yesterday not one irish person spotted
@Square: were you not there?
Better off putting the money in to a National Nite Club so I can start training for the LA Olympics disco dancing!
Any reason why once again this facility is in Dublin? Do they think that rest of the country doesn’t exist.
@Comments Section Closed: I’ve never seen cricket being played in Ringsend? Some people here have a major chip on their shoulder about Dublin 4.
@Comments Section Closed: bored , I checked the team and good few lads are from the north. Having it in Dublin makes no sense. Have Dublin airport restricted on numbers, lacking hotels for all the other events and now they go looking to fly in spectators from around the world to watch games. I swear I wonder how some people tie their shoes because they can’t see beyond their nose
@Shane: If there was to be a permanent home proposed for the National Ploughing Championships there would be a lot of head scratching as to how they could accommodate it in Dublin before giving consideration to any other part of the country, furthermore it must be galling for them that they couldn’t come up with a facility in Dublin for a National Rowing Centre and instead had to have it located in Cork which by the way has helped enormously in the success of Irish Rowing in recent Olympic Games in Rio, Tokyo and Paris.
@Ian Cunningham: not including me of course
There are people who enjoy the cut, thrust, peaks and troughs of a Test match and people who don’t like sport. A national stadium is a step in the right direction. Maybe somebody could do something about the weather after that?
@Justin Robinson: Do they play friendlies or is just test matches like the rugby.
@Square: how did you know they weren’t Irish. I remember taking a team of young fellas to the UK for a tournament a few years back, had some non traditional Irish surnames amongst them and different skin tones, but the only guy a on a foreign passport was a white guy named Brophy.
I hope they play Aussie Rules there during the Winter, like they do in Oz.
@Ian Cunningham: its just s saying im sure there was some lol