Future is bright for historic Park Avenue after revamp

A ground that has been the centrepiece of memories for Yorkshire’s great players throughout older generations.

And one that will now become the host of many more for men and women over future decades.

Park Avenue hosted first-class Yorkshire matches for a century before it lost its status as an out-ground in 1996.

Since then, the ground had found itself in a state of ruin – an eye sore for residents and cricket enthusiasts in the largely-Asian community.

But, courtesy of a £5.5m funding grant from the ECB and Sport England aimed at working more closely with South-Asian communities, the ground has been restored to its former glories. The regeneration programme has installed a state-of-the-art changing facility, outdoor nets and a scoring pavilion, which were opened yesterday by new England captain Joe Root.

Root, who featured with Bradford-born spinner Adil Rashid, Jonny Bairstow, David Willey and Moeen Ali, said: “This is a ground with a lot of Yorkshire history and tradition. It’s great to see there’s been a lot of investment and what a great job they have done with it.

“The more kids you get playing, the more chances they are given and the more stars you will see rising from that. This is a great chance for them to go and do that. To have these facilities in Bradford is massive.”

During its first class days, Bradford was a popular haven.

It became known around the circuit as ‘The Bullring’

Percy Holmes recorded the highest score on the ground of 275 against Warwickshire in 1928, while CB Fry compiled 234 in 1903. Included on the list of records is the name of Dickie Bird OBE.

The 84-year-old made his highest score of 181 not out at Bradford in 1959, against Glamorgan – only to be dropped next match.

“I bet he’s told you about it,” quipped Root, before the joke was repeated by England colleague Bairstow.

Indeed, he had.

“I got my highest score here, 181 not out against Glamorgan,” Bird said.

“And they had six international bowlers in their side. I was dropped next match, that’s Yorkshire.

“I have some wonderful memories of this ground. I played here and I umpired here. The crowd were very appreciative. I will always treasure those memories. To see these facilities that they have now, this will be marvellous for the Bradford community.”

Park Avenue first hosted the White Rose in 1881 and was amongst a group of out-grounds including Acklam Park, Middlesbrough, St George’s Park, Harrogate and The Circle, Hull.

Since 2014, the club has started returning to the old county grounds during their T20 season preparations. And it’s the new T20 format proposed by ECB chairman Colin Graves, who was also present, that could bring a return of home adventures around the county.

Currently Yorkshire’s only matches away from Headingley are on the coast at North Marine Road in Scarborough.

Steve Denison, Yorkshire CCC’s president, said: “We would really love to bring first-class cricket back to Bradford – and the spin-off benefits of the new T20 competition is that we can do that.

“If Headingley was a host venue for the competition, we would have to play the rest of our games somewhere else at the same time. This would be a great place to stage them. For a good number of years we have taken our warm-up games to out-grounds and we get thousands of families coming to those games.

“We want to do that in Bradford. It’s such an iconic ground with so much history. It’s fallen into disrepair so it’s brilliant to see it coming back to this.”

Park Avenue’s long-serving groundsman Nasa Hussain has become a Yorkshire employee challenged with preparing wickets to the standard that adorned the ground in years gone by.

Stood wearing a big smile, and a blue Yorkshire jumper, Hussain declared his pride in seeing the project take shape and what it represents for the community.

“Can you imagine what it feels like after 20 years of it being derelict, to be told in two or three years time that Yorkshire may be gracing the ground again? It’s absolutely phenomenal,” he said.

“I’m hoping the community come in, fill the ground and show that cricket is still alive in Bradford. Bradford is a hotbed for cricket. The local community needs to take a little bit of ownership of that. It is a beautiful ground and it needs to be brought back to first-class status.”