Community
4 April, 2025
Cricket returns to Cazalys
CRICKET fever is returning to Cairns with two thrilling matches at Cazalys Stadium between South Africa and Australia this August kicking off the international fixtures for the year.
International cricket is making its way up north for the first time since 2022 as Cricket Australia announced its 2025-26 international fixtures, the announcement also comes after the news of Cazalys Stadium being a possible cricket host at the 2032 Olympic Games in Brisbane.
The two matches are South Africa vs Australia in the men’s T20I series on August 16 and South Africa vs Australia in the men’s ODI series on August 19.
“We’re really excited to host cricket for the first time since 2022 and it’s a great opportunity to bring back the game because Cazalys Stadium has such a unique opportunity to continually host these events into the future,” said Cazalys Stadium general manager Craig Lees.
“We’ve got a wonderful cricketing community here, and we’re really delighted to be able to get this done in conjunction with Cairns Regional Council, the state government - we thank them for their support - to Cricket Australia, for the vision to take the game to the people, which is absolutely outstanding.
“Some of our kids don’t get the opportunity to jump on a plane and go to a big city, so to bring the game to the community is sensational.
“We’ll have affordable ticket prices as well, so we urge our Cairns community to get behind these events, because it’s going to be wonderful for our town to continually host international cricket, and that’s the vision of the stadium for the next decade and beyond.”
Mr Lees said this was great news after the announcement of cricket possibly being played at Cazalys during the 2032 Brisbane Olympics.
“I was really excited last week with the announcement that we could be hosting Olympic Games cricket, should cricket be included in the games,” he said.
“If I can have a chat with the International Olympics Committee we’d like to make sure that it (cricket) stays in because I think that we deliver a world class wicket block here.
“Our master plan supports the fact that we want to grow the stadium to host more cricket into the future.”
Sydney Thunder player and cricket rising star Tanveer Sangha said he’s excited to try the field at Cazalys for the first time this August.
“It’s my first time in Cairns and I’m really excited to see that cricket is coming back here,” he said.
“Cazalys is really nice, I was there last Sunday, it looks great, and I assume there’ll be high scores as well with all the great players involved.”
