Cricket to move to Lower Valley

By Cayman Sports Buzz
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Updated: 16 December 2016

Cricket’s long association with Smith Road Oval is coming to an end. The venue has been the main cricket grounds since being built in the 1970s but stands in the way of future expansion of the runway at Owen Roberts International Airport.

However, there are plans for a new facility to replace Smith Road Oval, which has become the Mecca of cricket in the Cayman Islands.

“We’ve just had an approval from my colleague, Minister [Kurt] Tibbetts, to have a ground for new headquarters done in the Lower Valley area and it’s now for the cricket association to take advantage of that and to work on those plans to make that a reality,” Sports Minister Osbourne Bodden said as he addressed Cayman Cricket’s awards dinner on Saturday, 10 December, 2016.

“We look forward to that becoming a reality in the near future and I’m certainly very excited that you’ll have a new ground with proper facilities on it with all the space and facilities that you need,” he added.

Cricketers ponder their strategy as a plane lands at Owen Roberts International Airport.

Smith Road Oval was developed in 1973 by the cricket association with assistance from Derek Wright and Mickey Greaves, along with the Department of Agriculture.

However, the flood prone venue has been in need of upgrades recently but investing in the facility would have only been short-term due to plans to expand the airport’s runway westward toward the ground.

CaymanSportsBuzz.com understands use of Smith Road Oval for cricket will be discontinued midway through 2017. When that happens, there will be no senior cricket played in the capital. Jimmy Powell Oval in West Bay is the other main cricket venue in Grand Cayman.

CaymanSportsBuzz.com will have more on plans for the new ground in a subsequent story.