As a sporting community, Orange has longed to be known as a hub for one of the country's more notable sporting codes. The home of something. Anything.
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The exposure, excellence and dollars the city will benefit from as a result of such a link is just too good an opportunity to pass up.
Rugby league has long been at the top of the list and being able to bring fixtures like City-Country and a couple of NRL trials to town only fueled that desire.
But given the assets the town boasts perhaps a sport of a different shape should have been pursued more 15 years ago.
Wade Park is undoubtedly the best oval-shaped ground past the Blue Mountains.
Leveling the field, adding a quaint white-picket fence around the perimeter, investing in sight screens and developing some turf practice nets on site has made the facility the best country cricket venue in NSW ... and now's the time to really make the most of that.
This week November 16 was locked in as the date the long-awaited $3.2 million, state of the art indoor cricket centre at Wade Park will be completed.
It's really the cherry on top.
Boasting women's and men's change rooms, a canteen, indoor cricket nets which can be used year-round and offices for Cricket NSW staff, the facility is, as Councillor Jason Hamling said, truly "spectacular".
And further plans to redevelop the current Wade Park grand stand to connect with the new centre and transform the whole complex into a wonderful resource for cricket in Orange, Mitchell and Western Zone will take the sport in our city to the next level.
Council attracted the Sydney Thunder to Wade Park in 2016 and the Big Bash League club played two trial games against Hong Kong in December that year.
Who could forget Nizakat Khan's ton in the final game? As sporting fans, and Orange has plenty, they're moments you cherish, moments only top level sporting contests can provide.
And now with infinitely better facilities at our disposal, surely luring more top level cricket is on the cards for Orange.
The Sheffield Shield has been played in regional NSW in the last couple of summers, women's BBL and BBL games have also been played in country towns.
Cricket NSW will look at its schedule for the upcoming summer shortly - fingers crossed Orange is in consideration to secure a game or two at our home of cricket.
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