Bill Potrecz for The St. Catherines Standard:-
Nestled along the Thorold-Niagara Falls border is Niagara’s own Field of Cricket Dreams.
The Niagara Cricket Club moved to the location four years ago after over 100 years at Ridley College and this week culminated years of hard work when they unveiled five new natural turf pitches by playing an international team from Australia in a friendly.
Long-time club member and executive Tan Qureshi was proud to show off the facility. “This was a weedy mess here four years ago,” Qureshi said. “The bulldozers ran here for a good two months to create the berm. (We thought) why don’t we build it and we will get some good players to play here? “The whole thing is, if you build it, they will come.”
Ontario boasts many cricket grounds usually found in municipal parks. These are all artificial pitches and unsuitable for international events. The NCC is one of the few cricket-only facilities of its kind in Ontario to have natural turf pitches and thus the capability for professional cricket.