The idea was hatched at the Western Australian Wheatbelt town of Shackleton in October 2019. Forty or so years earlier I’d played cricket at the place. The pitch was still there along with the practice nets and even the footy goalposts but live sporting action had long since ceased.
Abandoned cricket pitches, I thought, that would be good thing to put up on Instagram – mainly photos, not much writing.
The first Instagram post went up on 21 October 2019. The latest will be post 1000. That doesn’t mean 1000 pitches as we’ve doubled-up (sometimes on purpose), had little promotions and celebrated other milestones along the way.
The idea quickly went nationwide. The first post from out of WA was Purrumbete in Victoria on 24 October 2019 submitted by Luke Reynolds. A story by Toby Hussey on the ABC website on 20 January 2021 led to a series of ABC Radio interviews, a story by Gideon Haigh in the Weekend Australian Magazine and a surge in Instagram followers and submissions from all over the place.
This is cricket and we love statistics so here are a few.
Pitches posted.
ACT 2
NSW 63
NT 9
Qld 36
SA 90
Tas 27
Vic 105
WA 573
International 4
Pitches waiting to go up
ACT 2
NSW 4
NT 0
Qld 14
SA 23
Tas 1
Vic 24
WA 96
International 6
That means we’ve located 1079 abandoned cricket pitches. Thanks to all contributors, informants, followers, viewers, supporters, media advocates and to those who have been out on the road especially super-scout Gordon Smith.
Our celebratory slideshow features a selection of mainly WA pitches with music by The Everett Brothers live at Hybrid Warehouse in Fremantle featuring Peter Busher, Haydn Pickersgill and Dave Brewer. The song: I Can Never Go Back To Nyabing (Everett, Busher).
Keep the pitches rolling in.
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