Cricket at Dodger Stadium - Home of the Los Angeles Dodgers

On Saturday November 14, 2015, history was made at Dodger Stadium.  The home of the Los Angeles Dodgers hosted it’s first ever 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 Dodger Stadium 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 9.  The Dodger Stadium tray was loaded onto 2 flat bed trucks in Indianapolis, Indiana, and carefully wrapped for the trip to Los Angeles, CA.

The trucks arrived at Dodger Stadium Thursday November 12 and preparation continued Friday and Saturday.  

The match took place at 6:30 PM on Saturday November 14.  Attendance figures exceeded 30,000 while TV and Internet viewers were in the 30-50 million range around the world. 

Removal of the portable wicket began at 7:30 AM on Sunday and the wickets were back on the road to Indianapolis by noon on Sunday.

Overall, a great success.  Many people made this possible, but I can’t say thanks enough to the cooperation of the Dodger Stadium 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 - Round 3!

That was the final cricket event for 2015 in the states.  Will 2016 offer additional Cricket All-Star events?  Stay tuned! 

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

Play on!

--Jamie