Village Green was a cricket venue in

Christchurch Christchurch (; ) is the largest city in the South Island and the List of cities in New Zealand, second-largest city by urban area population in New Zealand. Christchurch has an urban population of , and a metropolitan population of over hal ...

, part of the sporting complex at

Queen Elizabeth II Park Queen Elizabeth II Stadium was a multi-use stadium in Christchurch, New Zealand, located in a large park called Queen Elizabeth II Park. The stadium had a capacity of 25,000 people and was built in 1973 to host the 1974 British Commonwealth Ga ...

. Between 1999 and 2011 it staged 31 first-class and 20

List A List A cricket is a classification of the Limited overs cricket, limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competit ...

matches, as well as 28 matches in the women's inter-provincial one-day competition. It was often used for Canterbury's matches when

Lancaster Park Lancaster Park, also known as Jade Stadium and AMI Stadium for sponsorship reasons, was a sports stadium in Waltham, a suburb of Christchurch in New Zealand. The stadium closed permanently due to damage sustained in the February 2011 earthqu ...

was unavailable. The ground was so severely damaged in the 22 February

2011 Christchurch earthquake A major earthquake occurred in Christchurch on Tuesday 22 February 2011 at 12:51 p.m. New Zealand Daylight Time, local time (23:51 Coordinated Universal Time, UTC, 21 February). The () earthquake struck the Canterbury Region ...

that it could no longer be used.

History

Village Green was first utilised as a cricket venue for a significant match in October 1998 as the Canterbury Cricket Association (CCA) looked for alternatives to the frequently unavailable

and heavily used

Hagley Oval Hagley Oval is a Cricket field, cricket ground in Hagley Park, Christchurch, Hagley Park in the Christchurch Central City, central city of Christchurch, New Zealand. The first recorded match on the ground was in 1867, when Canterbury cricket te ...

. The following March it was called upon to host Canterbury’s Shell Trophy match against

Otago Otago (, ; ) is a regions of New Zealand, region of New Zealand located in the southern half of the South Island and administered by the Otago Regional Council. It has an area of approximately , making it the country's second largest local go ...

, in doing so it became the 56th venue in New Zealand to host first-class cricket. After several years of hosting matches with just 'tent village' surroundings, the lack of facilities caused it to overlooked by the CCA as a venue for two seasons. In 2002, work began to relocate the former New Brighton Trotting Club grandstand to adjacent the ground and repurposing the ground floor into a cricket pavilion. In January 2005, during a match against

Central Districts The Central Stags, formerly known as Central Districts, are a first-class cricket team based in central New Zealand. They are the men's representative side of the Central Districts Cricket Association. They compete in the Plunket Shield firs ...

, Canterbury

off spin Off spin is a type of spin bowling in cricket. A bowler who uses this technique is called an off spinner. Off spinners bowl with their right-arm and a finger spin action. Their normal delivery is called an off break, which spins from left to r ...

ner Paul Wiseman took bowling figures of 9/13, the second best recorded in the history of New Zealand domestic cricket. For the 2005–06 season, CCA chose the Village Green over Hagley Oval as the home venue for all of the team's first-class fixtures. The ground staged five matches at the

2010 Under-19 Cricket World Cup The 2010 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup was the eighth edition of the Under-19 Cricket World Cup and took place in New Zealand. Since 1998, the tournament has been held every 2 years. This edition had 16 teams competing in 44 matches between 15 ...

. Village Green was used to host the final of New Zealand's domestic one-day competitions in 2006 and 2011; the latter match between Canterbury and

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

on 13 February 2011 was the last fixture played at the ground. It also hosted the final of the women's one-day competition in 2001, 2006 and 2011. The ground was severely damaged beyond repair by the 22 February

with fissures across the pitch and outfield. The cricket pavilion also suffered significant damage, a review into the costs of repairing the building concluded in 2015 that it was unviable financially and it would be demolished. The rest of the wider Queen Elizabeth II complex had been demolished in 2012.

References

External links

espncricinfo

{{Cricket in New Zealand 1998 establishments in New Zealand 2012 disestablishments in New Zealand Sports venues in Christchurch Cricket grounds in New Zealand 2011 Christchurch earthquake