Stadium experiment hailed a success

SYDNEY, Feb 16 AAP - It's played host to one of Australia's proudest sporting triumphs, so why not the nation's favourite sport?

Telstra Stadium, the former centrepiece of the Sydney Olympics, today made its debut as a cricket ground in the last regular season match of the ING Cup between NSW and competition wooden spooner South Australia.

And, judging by the enthusiasm with which it was greeted as a cricket venue, there seems no reason why it won't be used again, particularly as a stage for one-day internationals.

But that won't happen until at least 2005-06 because of an agreement between Cricket NSW and the Sydney Cricket Ground Trust to play one-day internationals at the SCG until then.

Some 25,763 people turned up today, the second-biggest crowd at a domestic one-day game behind the 32,908 who watched Victoria play Western Australia at the MCG on January 23, 1977.

As a result, the atmosphere was fantastic - plenty of crowd participation with chanting and Mexican waves, not to mention 17-year-old Stephen McCabe who won a $5,000 investment portfolio and $1,000 cash for catching a six off Mark Waugh.

One could only imagine the vibe an international fixture would generate.

The only downside was a rain delay of more than an hour, when the lights even got a workout while poncho-clad fans danced to an impressive array of songs with rain as the theme blaring over the public address system.

"For me, the big success story about today is that this has proved without a shadow of a doubt that this is a cricket venue for the future," said Cricket NSW chief executive David Gilbert.

And while the traditionalists might be opposed to moving games from the SCG, Gilbert believes the beloved ground can co-exist with Homebush, the two venues sharing one-day international fixtures.

"Everyone in their right mind understands the Test match belongs at the Sydney Cricket Ground," Gilbert said.

"That's where the traditions are. But one-day international cricket ... we're talking about a game that's 30 years old, there's no traditions to one-day cricket.

"When that gets pedalled out, that really gets my back up because one-day cricket is the fast food of cricket.

"It's about a result on the day, everyone has a great time, everyone has a beer and a pie and are probably hard pressed the next day to remember who won the game - that's the game."

Gilbert said while NSW would find it difficult to poach any more one-dayers from other states, the plan would be to play two of its current allocation of four matches at the SCG and two at Telstra Stadium.

"Even thinking further ahead, 2011, which I think will be the next time that we get the World Cup and why shouldn't Sydney put its foot forward now and say, 'we would like to think that we could host the World Cup final'," he said.

"Why has it got to go to Melbourne on a platter purely because they've got the capacity?"