$120,000 project could be completed by fall
\nBy FRANK LANDRY,
\nVictoria Park is George Robinson\u2019s field of dreams.
\nThe head of the Edmonton and District Cricket League hopes planned upgrades to two cricket pitches at the river valley park will help attract international tournaments to the city.
\n
\nAt the very least, top-notch facilities will help make local players more competitive, he said.
\n\u201cIt moves us to where we\u2019ll be playing to conditions similar to those used in international games,\u201d said Robinson.
\n\u201cHopefully we can have an international game here one day in Edmonton.\u201d
\nThe feds went to bat for the 400-player league Wednesday, pledging about $37,000 to help with improvements to the park.
\nThe two cricket pitches are slated to have their stone surfaces replaced with natural grass turf late this summer \u2014 the standard for top-end fields.
\n\u201cThat\u2019s dinosaur stuff,\u201d Robinson said, pointing at the existing pitches.
\n\u201cPlaying on natural turf as compared to what we play on now is a completely different game.\u201d He said that puts local players at a disadvantage.
\nRobinson said the project \u2014 with an overall budget of $120,000 \u2014 may be completed as early as this fall.
\nEdmonton MP Laurie Hawn also pledged $15,000 to the Alberta Schools Cricket Association to help build another pitch at Coronation Park.<\/p>\n
Hawn said 100 schools across the province already participate in cricket programs. He said the cash will promote sport, fitness and community involvement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
$120,000 project could be completed by fall By FRANK LANDRY, Victoria Park is George Robinson\u2019s field of dreams. The head of the Edmonton and District Cricket League hopes planned upgrades to two cricket pitches at the river valley park will help attract international tournaments to the city.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=73"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73\/revisions\/74"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=73"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=73"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=73"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}