Costa Del Sol Crisis: Pitch to close
Marbella Cricket Club Media Release
May 1998
It has just come to light that the 'Cartama Cricket Oval', the only
Cricket pitch on the Costa Del Sol, is to close for development at the end
of the year. For eight years now, all the Cricket Clubs on the Coast have
been in continual contact with both the Marbella & Estepona Town Halls,
trying to somehow acquire a piece of land to play on & to educate the
youngsters of the Coast in the game of Cricket. The Tourist Board
attribute around 600,000 visitors to the game of Golf but in the UK, more
people play Cricket than Golf! There are almost 50 Golf courses on this
coast (some of which must have some spare land adjacent that could be used
for Cricket) but there is only 1 Cricket Pitch, which although very
picturesque, nestled in the hills overlooking Malaga & the sea, is
undersized & the access is not very good. In the UK, there are over 10,000
Cricket Clubs whose season is over before it has really begun, due to the
bad weather but here, we boast the best weather of anywhere else in Europe
& yet we do not use this to promote a sport which is predominantly played
in the sunshine. The National Cricket Association, based at Lord's Cricket
Ground in London, have agreed that they will accept the results of League
matches played here on the coast & so this would encourage teams to come &
play here, which in turn would surely boost the tourism figures. In my
opinion, the Spanish are a very proud race, & rather than admit that they
do not understand the game, they pretend that they are not interested in
it but all of the players on the coast are willing to give up their time,
to introduce the game to the school children (Spanish & English alike) &
we all know that children love to play any game that involves a ball &
then possibly create a League for the schools to compete against one
another. I have been assured that if the initiative was taken by the
authorities to provide a pitch, that the European Cricket Council would
follow suit & assist in providing the equipment for the children to train
with. The current Spanish League Champions are based here on the Costa Del
Sol & we hope that this will remain so for next year but what good will it
do if there is no pitch to play on? It may seem strange but the Spanish
National team has no Spaniards in it, so please, help us to prevent the
downfall of an Internationally played Sport & send your support & comments
via fax, letter or e-mail to this newspaper so that we may present the
media's opinion to the relevant authorities & stop the downfall of an
age-old Sport in this part of Spain.
Contact: Tony Reddin, Marbella Cricket Club (comicman@activanet.es)
Source: Marbella Cricket Club Media Release
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Date-stamped : 07 Oct1998 - 04:17