Cricket at Citi Field

On Saturday November 7, 2015, history was made at Citi Field. The home of the New York Mets became the first major professional baseball ground in the United States to host an international cricket match.  The Cricket All Stars played an exhibition game featuring retired cricket stars, the most popular being Sachin Tendulkar and Shane Warne.

How was this accomplished?  Careful and extensive planning along with great work and cooperation from the Citi Field Grounds Crew.  

Let’s start back in late May/early June 2015.  Design of the steel trays began.  On July 21, 2015 steel trays, designed by Mark Perham from FieldTurfNZ arrived at the J&D Turf warehouse.  On July 23-24 the trays were filled with clay and carefully leveled.  Entering the prime seeding window for cool season turf, the trays were seeded with 100% apron treated ryegrass on August 25.  A temporary irrigation system as installed, growth blankets placed and the grow-in commenced.  

7 days later germination was present and by late September (approximately 35 days after seeding) the wickets were ready for initial preparations.

Wicket prep continued during the month of October.

Moving day began on November 4.  The Citi Field tray was loaded onto 2 flat bed trucks in Indianapolis, Indiana, and carefully wrapped for the trip to New York, NY.

The trucks arrived in New York City’s Citi Field late Thursday November 5.  Installation began late Thursday and concluded around 3 AM.

Preparation continued Friday and Saturday morning.  

The match took place at 1 PM on Saturday November 7.  Attendance figures exceeded 25,000 while TV and Internet viewers were in the millions around the world. 

Removal of the portable wicket began at the conclusion of the match and the wicket was back on the road to Indianapolis by 11 PM on Saturday

Overall, a great success.  Many people made this possible, but I can’t say thanks enough to the cooperation of the Citi Field Grounds Crew.  Their hard work, assistance, and attention to detail was exceptional.  The “grow-in team” with J&D Turf in Indianapolis was exceptional.  Finally, the design and hands on work of Mark Perham of FieldTurfNZ and his team was the driving force to making all of this possible.

So there you go, innovation at it’s best! 

Go to j-dturf.com to learn more about J&D Turf.

Play on!

--Jamie

@JamieMehringer