WACA development to make Perth a two Test venue town

Perth will enhance its standing as the only Australian city with two Test-standard international cricket venues now that the WACA Ground's proposed $75 million redevelopment has received a significant funding boost from the Federal Government.

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann has announced the Commonwealth will contribute $30 million to the long-awaited upgrade, with the balance being sought from the WA State Government ($40 million) as well as contributions from Cricket Australia and the WACA.

In addition to a new indoor training facility and state-of-the-art gymnasium that will be available for community use, the ground's playing surface will be updated and reconfigured to enable it to host state league Australia rules football fixtures.

Image Id: 4B026CF4E5E04854B327EED9F70F9645 Image Caption: How the new WACA will look // WACA

Crucially, it will also retain its ICC accreditation as an international venue which means it can host global tournaments as well as Test matches, including day-night fixtures courtesy of the huge floodlight towers that remain from its days as Perth's principal cricket venue.

While North Sydney Oval and the former Olympic Stadium at Homebush have hosted international fixtures in the past, neither maintain the ICC accreditation needed to be allocated men's Test matches by the game's governing body.

WACA Chief Executive Christina Matthews said today the planned redevelopment, which is expected to begin in the new year, would bring a number of vital additions to the ageing stadium as well as reduce its permanent capacity to 10,000 spectators.

While that number could be lifted to 15,000 for special events through the installation of temporary seating, the 'boutique-style' setting would ideally suit Test matches against lower-profile Test nations that have historically struggled to attract large crowds.

The first of those could be next summer's proposed one-off Test match between Australia and Afghanistan that is expected to precede the four-match Test series against the world's top-ranked team, India.

"The State Government has a hierarchy of stadiums and they wouldn't fund this ground if it was going to be bigger than 15,000," Matthews said today.

"So it's absolutely in line with having Test matches for those new countries into Test cricket, and the smaller countries.

"Since the (new Perth) stadium opened we've been doing all different sorts of things here.

"We've had Manchester United and Chelsea football clubs (from England's Premier League), the Wallabies (Australia rugby team) have been based here for their training in the winter, and this gives us a real opportunity to lengthen the ground for some WAFL (Australian rules) footy.

"But it's also a massive opportunity for our local community, and the broader community, with an open public space on the north-west corner that we'll be able to use for the Fringe and Perth festivals.

"For our own cricketers - and this is at its heart, a cricket ground - it's a fantastic opportunity to catch up with the rest of the country and, with what we've got planned, to go past what others have got in terms of high-performance facilities."

The planned WACA redevelopment mirrors the establishment of auxiliary playing and training hubs in Brisbane (Allan Border Field), Melbourne (Junction Oval) and the Cricket New South Wales operation currently under construction at Silverwater.

But the WACA holds the added advantage of being a known and accredited international venue that could host Test and limited-overs matches alongside the 60,000-seat Perth Stadium which held its first day-night Test as part of the current Domain Series between Australia and New Zealand.

Cricket Australia Chief Executive Kevin Roberts last week acknowledged that one of Australia's five traditional mainland Test venues will miss out on the marquee India Tests, and the location of the historic Afghanistan Test is yet to be finalised.

Former Australia vice-captain Adam Gilchrist said if the new Perth Stadium is not successful in securing an India Test match in 2020-21, it would make sense to play the Afghanistan Test at the WACA which last hosted a Test during the 2017-18 Ashes summer.

"If it's the case that Perth has Afghanistan, then I would envisage it being here," Gilchrist said at the WACA Ground this morning.

"And I know that's not going to disappoint too many people by way of seeing Test cricket back at the WACA.

"I travelled overseas recently, particularly in India, and while there's a lot of interest in the new stadium, everyone wants to know about the WACA.

"They want to know if it's surviving, if it's going to be there in the future and today goes a long way to confirming that is the case."

Matthews remains "reasonably confident" the proposed $40 million complementary contribution from the WA Government will be forthcoming, which would enable the new vision to be fully realised.

That would see the ground's current Inverarity and Prindiville Stands on the northern flank demolished and replaced by a central structure, and the current indoor training pavilion removed in favour of a 10-lane indoor nets facility.

WA men's team captain Mitchell Marsh said the planned redevelopment, which has been previously floated in various iterations but had never won the final go-ahead, would ensure the state's men's, women's and development teams had access to training programs and amenities the equal of any in the nation.

"It's amazing," Marsh said today.

"I've been playing for Western Australia for ten years, and there's always been talk about redeveloping the ground and now it's real.

"And the prospect of finishing my career in an elite facility, like it's going to be, will be exciting.

"But I think the most exciting part is that future kids of Western Australia and Australia will be coming to the WACA Ground and honing their skills and learning in an elite facility."