Cricket NSW: Mark Taylor opens batting at the new Mark Taylor Oval

Taylor faced the first ball on the pitch of the ground that was formerly known as Waitara Oval but has been renamed owing to this being his formative club cricket ground, bowled by Australian Blind and Low Vision Cricket’s star player Oscar Stubbs, while also understanding the rules of this form of cricket at the same time. Hornsby Shire’s Mayor-elect, Warren Waddell, was also present at the event.  

Mark Taylor Oval is the home ground of the Northern Districts Cricket Club (NDCC), which Taylor played for, setting the stage for his glorious achievements in his long and illustrious international cricketing career. The club decided that the first match on the oval was going to be between the NSW Blind and Low Vision team and players, both male and female, of the NDCC.   

This was particularly significant as the 99-year-old inclusive club has always promoted all abilities cricket. It was also great practice for the NSW team, six of whose players including Stubbs, Steffan Nero and newcomer Lincoln Muddle, have been selected to be a part of the Australian team to play the Blind & Low Vision Ashes series in Queensland in November this year.  

Players from the NDCC included club vice president Simon Trowell and Cricket NSW Blast Specialist Dani Chivers, and a mix of the club’s senior and junior players including 14-year-old twin sisters, Aarini and Kingkini Mazumdar, who started playing cricket all of 12 months ago. The match was organised by Elysa Oliveri, one of NSW cricket’s most prolific young volunteers, who was named Young Leader of the Year during the Cricket Australia Community Cricket Awards in 2023.   

Taylor was the opening batter on the new pitch as he has been thousands of times before, this time wearing vision impairing glasses to follow the rules of blind cricket, and the first match at the Mark Taylor Oval took off, for many more to come, including a centenary match that is being planned on the same day (September 19) next year to mark 100 years of the NDCC.  

The renamed oval and the indoor centre have been in the works for over three years, in an upgrade project jointly funded by the NSW Government, Hornsby Shire Council, and Australian Cricket Infrastructure Fund.

Formerly Waitara Park, the Indoor Centre of the Mark Taylor Oval was the first to open in February 2023. The upgraded facility includes a four-lane indoor training centre, kit-bag storage, curators shed, outside storage, and outdoor turf training nets. With the inauguration of the Oval in September, the ground is ready to host matches through the 2024-25 season. Meanwhile, upcoming upgrades will include shaded viewing areas and a community centre as well.  

To kick off the opening of the ground, Taylor said: “I have spent many years of my life playing at this Oval and it makes me very proud to have my name up there on the scoreboard, to be associated with this ground and this club. It is a great part of my life.”