RYAN CAMPBELL – PERTH MOVE IS RIGHT FOR CRICKET

"The Waca is an unusual case in Australia"

Ryan Campbell, a former Western Australia favourite, backs the decision to move major matches away from the Waca ground as a way to safeguard the future of cricket in Perth.

Campbell, who played two one-day internationals when Adam Gilchrist was resting, was among the most aggressive batsmen in world cricket during his 10-year career with Western Australia, and struck 146 against England in the four-day tour match at the Waca in 1998/99.

But he says the Waca’s reputation as the bounciest pitch in Australia is a bit of a misnomer, and says England ought to cope better than some pundits are expecting in their last Ashes Test on the ground, despite a horrendous record at the venue.

“I’m a traditionalist, but not a full-blown traditionalist,” Campbell told The Cricketer. “I played my state cricket at the Waca, and even when I was there the wickets were getting a little tired. They weren’t quite the lightning or bouncy wickets they used to be.

“When England get out to the middle they need to remember that the Waca is a great place to bowl, but also one of the best places in the world to bat if you know how to play there. Australia have shown they are a little vulnerable with the bat, so England could do well and reduce Australia to a few down if they bowl well. But I am expecting Australia to be 3-0 up at the end of the Test…

“The practice wickets… they are fast and they always have been – so if England are batting on them in the run-up to the Test they might be feeling the heat. You can imagine what it was like for us guys trying to face Duncan Spencer and Brendon Julian trying to knock our heads off in practice. But it is slightly different when you get out to the middle.”

The third Test will be the last Ashes Test at the Waca ground, which can take up to 24,000 people, before the highest-profile matches in Western Australia move to a new 60,000 Perth Stadium over the Swan River. The WACA are planning a dual-stadium model, with the Waca ground redesigned in to a boutique 15,000-seater venue hosting women’s matches, and Tests and ODIs against the likes of New Zealand, Sri Lanka and other smaller draws.

The WACA’s Vision 2030 plan to redevelop the Waca is projected to cost A$150m, with a third of that requested from the cash-strapped local government. It will also deliver a high-performance centre and new facilities for players, WACA members and the media. The WACA are also considering selling off three plots of land on the ground, which could raise $25m for the project.

WACA chief executive Christina Matthews said recently: “There's obviously returns in it for us because of the ticket sales. Going from a ground that's 20,000 to 60,000, you obviously get higher returns, but there are also additional costs. But we've done our modelling that tells us we're going to be better off than worse off.

"We wouldn't be very good businesspeople if we were moving somewhere that was going to send us down the tubes all the time. So, yes, there is an uplift as we go along.”

Campbell, who now coaches the Netherlands, added that the most important thing was that top-level cricket in Australia – whether men’s or women’s internationals or Big Bash games for Perth Scorchers – are not imperilled in Western Australia. Perth has occasionally missed out on Test matches in Australian summers, such as in 2014/15, when India played four Tests but none at the Waca.

Campbell said: “The Waca is an unusual case in Australia, in that the Western Australian Cricket Association own it and operate it themselves. That’s a tough thing to do in the current economic climate.

“And I’m told the new stadium is out of this world. WA have lost Test matches before, and if we get a situation where Test matches never leave WA again, because this is such an incredible stadium, then that’s a good thing.”

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