Pioneering new facility transforms historic Yorkshire outground

Park Avenue, in Bradford, has been home to the innovative Cricket Shield™ for the past 12 months. DAVID SHARMAN catches up on its progress

PROMOTIONAL FEATURE

At Bradford's historic Park Avenue ground, where more than 300 first-class matches have been played by Yorkshire and others, a pioneering dome system is now revolutionising the way cricketers practice. 

The Cricket Shield™ product was installed at the ground in November 2023, making weatherproof access to outdoor nets a reality for clubs and schools a reality after three year of planning. 

The £1.5million community inclusion project - funded by ECB in partnership with City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council – was developed by cricket pitch specialist total-play Ltd and has since hosted international cricketers and national tournaments. 

Tasked with developing an innovative covered outdoor facility that would provide year-round practice facilities and be constructed over existing nets, TP developed Cricket Shield™. 

The innovative product is equipped with premium state of the art lighting, ECB approved elite cricket surfaces, and a retractable netting system that accommodates both training and matchplay. 

"Since the domes opened, we have had more than 15,000 people use them - from single-lane bookings to both courts for tournaments,” says Park Avenue head groundsman, Nasa Hussain. 

"I think we can say the domes have had a massive impact on participation and the spectrum of users is from World Cup-winning international cricketer to the lad and his dad or mum using the facility."

Yorkshire's first team members have been among those to use the facility at their historic outpost, including Pakistan Test captain Shan Masood. 

Since it opened, it has also hosted the ECB's national tape ball competition and an event for the Sikh community which attracted 24 teams from all over the country. 

"The demographics of our users are very diverse," adds Hussain. 

"We have people coming from as far as Doncaster and Hull, in addition to the Yorkshire disability team, the Bradford visually impaired team and the Yorkshire women's teams."

The success of the Park Avenue facility has led to the company adapting the multi-million-pound pioneering design to work for projects of different scales and budgets. 

Two further pilot projects are currently in development with the ECB - a three-lane facility and a seven-lane facility respectively. 

"I would definitely recommend the domes as a product, they are a massive game changer," concludes Hussain. "Total-play have been amazing in all they have done to design and build this facility. I’ve always been consulted on what’s going on."

To find out more about total-play click here.

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