Gabba pitch to be grown on trays and relocated to Victoria Park after the 2032 Games

Queensland will grow replacement pitches in trays beside the Gabba square and move the block to the new Brisbane Stadium once the 2032 Olympics are done

The Queensland government has confirmed that the Gabba's wicket block will survive the ground's demolition. Full-sized trays will be sunk into the turf beside the existing square, seasoned there for years, then lifted out and installed at the 63,000-seat Brisbane Stadium at Victoria Park after the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The first tray is due to go in within weeks. The surface will then be monitored through Queensland's domestic season and tested under first-class conditions, a programme that runs almost to the Games themselves.

Premier David Crisafulli said the plan was about protecting what the venue has meant to Australian cricket. "We are acting now to make sure the legacy of the Gabba can live on," he said.

How the transplant will work

The replacement is being built to copy the original rather than approximate it. Gabba grounds manager David Sandurski said the tray would carry the same dimensions as the existing wickets and the same make-up beneath them.

"The new wicket will replicate both the dimensions of existing wickets and the make-up, with the same clay base, soil and turf, so we'll be looking to refine it over time to reproduce the same pace and bounce the Gabba is famous for," Sandurski said.

He said the groundstaff had "explored a range of wicket block practices and technologies at venues across Australia and New Zealand" before settling on the tray design, clay type and turfing method.

The timetable gives them years rather than months. The tray goes in this year, is monitored through practice and domestic matches in 2027-28, then tested under first-class cricket from 2028 to 2031 before the move.

A deck built to hurt visitors

The Gabba's standing rests on pace and bounce few touring sides have solved. Australia went 33 years unbeaten in Tests there before the run ended in 2021.

England have not won a Test in Brisbane since 1986, a record that has kept the venue at the centre of Australia's home summers.

Test batter Marnus Labuschagne, who plays his state cricket there, was at the announcement. "It's such a unique pitch. For that to continue on to Victoria Park for generations past my own would be a really privileged position," he said.

He was blunter about the stakes. "Playing the First Test of any series at the Gabba is an advantage for Australia because of the pitch characteristics," Labuschagne said.

Queensland's push for the first Test

The announcement was immediately folded into a campaign to bring the summer's opening Test back to Brisbane. Queensland Cricket chief executive Terry Svenson said the state now had its case.

"Queensland Cricket and the entire cricket community in Queensland calls on Cricket Australia to now return the First Test to its rightful home in Brisbane," Svenson said.

Crisafulli framed the same ambition around the calendar's fixed points. "What I want to see long term is for the first Test in Queensland to be as undisputed as Boxing Day in Melbourne or the New Year's Test in Sydney," he said.

The timing is pointed. The Gabba will not stage a Test this summer, the first time in 50 years that has happened, though Queensland play first-class cricket there and the ground hosts five Brisbane Heat BBL matches over the holidays.

The cost stays under wraps

Crisafulli declined to put a figure on moving the wicket, saying only that it sat inside the $7.1 billion Games infrastructure budget and that the detail would follow once the work was done.

"It will be worth every single cent, and it will be part of the cost of delivering the Games," the premier said.

Labor's shadow Games minister, Grace Grace, said that fell short of the "openness and transparency that they promised the people of Queensland".

What the new ground inherits

Brisbane Stadium is being built as the main venue for the 2032 Games, after which the Gabba is to be pulled down. The relocated block is expected to be ready for international cricket in the 2032-33 season.

That season already has a marquee fixture attached, with the opening Ashes Test set down for Victoria Park.

Whether a transplanted square can carry a ground's character across a city is a question Brisbane cannot answer for another six years.

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