Willowmoore Park rocked by vandalism and theft

Despite Easterns Cricket Union’s best efforts to keep Willowmoore Park in immaculate condition, this City of Ekurhuleni facility continues to be plagued by vandalism, theft and neglect.

Vagrants have vandalised public toilets, the public entrance on Harpur Avenue and Tom Jones Street, and stolen cables inside the venue. In addition, maintenance on the outside perimeter has been shoddy.

Despite the union escalating these issues to the metro and EMPD, there is still no action.

“This facility belongs to the municipality. We try our utmost best to look after it. At this point, we don’t have the power to remove those people. It needs the municipality or law enforcement to remove them,” said the union’s cricket services manager Colin Gxowa.

The facility is one of the two venues that will host the inaugural ICC U19 women’s T20 world cup in January.

Easterns is now in a race against time to ensure safety concerns around the venue are dealt with before the first match on January 14.

It will host group A and D round-robin fixtures that also feature the hosts, South Africa. It will also host super six matches.

Gxowa revealed that there was recently a burglary with cables stolen and it’s now costing them exorbitant amounts in repairs.

“Through the corner of Harpur Avenue and Tom Jones Street we had a burglary at our scorers’ booth. They have stolen Wi-Fi cables. It’s costing us R26 000 in repairs. We now have to fix all that before our provincial and club cricket starts next month.

“We feel we are not safe with those people there at that corner. We’ve got public toilets there that are unusable. They don’t have a right to use that facility. It’s supposed to be used by the public when they come to watch games.”

Also Read: Concerns about filth caused by homeless at Willowmoore Park

Gxowa took the City Times to the corner of Harpur Avenue and Tom Jones Road to look at the damage. We found excrement and burnt tyres. The razor wire on the palisade was also damaged and Gxowa believes that’s where the vagrants enter the facility.

Financial assistance from the municipality

Gxowa revealed that the union is currently not receiving any financial backing from the City of Ekurhuleni.

He said for Willowmoore Park to look like a world-class cricket venue, they need the help of the municipality to ensure the maintenance of the facility.

“We are not asking for much from the municipality. We just want them to come on board and help us.

“We don’t have the funds to look after this facility in its entirety. We’ve got funding from Cricket South Africa to run cricket programmes, but we don’t have the funding to look after the facility. On its own, it requires a lot of assistance from them.”

“They’ve realised that with us hosting the world cup, it implicates them as well. This is their facility and we need help to look after it. This is an opportunity for them to kick in and assist us to make this stadium look good.

“We need the relationship and partnership to be strong. Most importantly we need assistance in running this facility and making it look like a world-class stadium. We are not a test-hosting venue but we are an international stadium. We need to look the part,” he said.

We have sent queries to the EMPD and the City of Ekurhuleni. We are awaiting their response.

Also Read: SA women beat Namibia at Willowmoore Park

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