Warwickshire will be handed the keys to a 120-year-old city cricket ground in a matter of days – with plans to play first class matches there.
The club will take ownership of the former M&B Brewery sport ground at Cape Hill in early November, which will be run as a community facility to boost sports participation.
The venue will also be used for second XI matches in the short-term and chief executive Colin Povey said it would host occasional first team games within a matter of three years.
A new pavilion has been built on the site after an existing sports and social club was demolished.
Mr Povey said: “We will start out with younger age group cricket and then next year some second team cricket.By 2017 we hope the facility will be good enough to host the odd first team game if we need to. If we are hosting Champions Trophy games it would be quite nice if we didn’t have to be on the road for three weeks. Then by 2019 with the Ashes and the World Cup we are going to be chock-a-block.
“This gives us facilities to use which will help with scheduling.”
The new pavilion, built by developer Persimmon, boasts home and away changing rooms, offices and social areas.
While the club has been asked to run the new facility it has a community focus, with school groups expected to benefit. Existing bowling greens have been retained with mini-football pitches being put in.
