The spirit of the Gabba is set to live on at Brisbane’s new Olympic Stadium with a plan revealed to relocate the iconic cricket pitch after the 2032 Games.
For more than a year, Queensland premier David Crisafulli and Stadiums Queensland experts have been working on a highly confidential plan to move the Gabba square to the new $3.8 billion, 63,000-seat capacity stadium that will be the new home of international cricket in Brisbane as well as the BBL’s Brisbane Heat and the AFL’s Brisbane Lions.
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According to a report in The Courier Mail, organisers discussed the pitches being carried across Brisbane from Woolloongabba to Victoria Park via a military transport Chinook helicopter, but it is expected that road transport will instead be how the move is made.
Once the, what is believed to be a world-first, transfer is complete, it would allow the trademark pace and bounce of the Gabba to continue at Brisbane’s new stadium.
“Let me put it this way, I just think the cricket ghosts of the Gabba should live on at Victoria Park and keep terrorising the Poms for years to come,’’ Crisafulli told The Courier-Mail.
“There’s nothing else like the Gabba deck anywhere in the world and I hope the Poms hate playing there as much as they do at the Gabba.’’
Queensland Minister for Sport Tim Mander said: “The Gabbatoir has been a first Test fortress for decades and summer cricket is synonymous with Queensland. That’s why it is so important to us to find a way to preserve its legacy well beyond 2032.”
The plan will surely be welcomed by cricket lovers across the country.
The Gabba and the SCG have resisted the change to drop-in pitches that has taken place at the MCG and Adelaide Oval, while the WACA was abandoned for a drop-in at Perth’s Optus Stadium.
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The plethora of grassy surfaces that have led to shorter Test and plummeting Sheffield Shield averages in recent summers have also led to cricketers across the country decrying the loss of the unique characteristic’s each venue’s pitches were historically known for.
The Gabba has maintained its world renowned reputation for pace and bounce that brings both quicks and spinners into the game, while runs are also on offer for the batters.
Some of this generation’s finest in Steve Smith, Travis Head and Joe Root have all scored Test centuries at the Gabba in the past two summers.
While spinners Shane Warne and Nathan Lyon famously have outstanding records at the venue where current Australian captain Pat Cummins average 18.5 with the ball.
The new Olympic Stadium is set to host its first Test match four months after the Games in late 2032.
