Westpac Trust Park
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Westpac Trust Park is a Cricket Stadium in Hamilton, 4th largest city in New Zealand and is renowned for its "village green" setting, affording a picnic atmosphere for spectators. It is the second largest proper Cricket Ground in New Zealand. The Stadium was formerly known as Seddon Park after the former New Zealand Prime Minister Richard John (King Dick) Seddon. Then the stadium's name was changed to Trust park. Finally now it is known as Westpac (Trust) Park.
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[edit] Ground
Seddon Park is round. Originally outfitted for cricket, Seddon park is a well-grassed stadium with a centre block of 9 pitches, running approximately North/South. These are usually very good batting tracks. There is an embankment going around three-quarters of the perimeter and, outside this embankment is a tall hedgerow. On the side of the oval opposite the pavilion (the south-eastern side) is the semaphore-style scoreboard which shows all the names of the players in each team all the time etc. Seddon Park has a flexible stadium environment that can be modified to fit-for-purpose. The ground has been used for hockey, rugby and rugby league matches during the off-season and concerts on several occasions. Providing the weather is fine it has a hard outfield. However as the majority of the ground is in the open the drainage is not as effective compared to other grounds, so it relies on good weather for a full match.
In 2006, Westpak Trust Bank NZ decided to end its sponsorship of a number of different sporting events and grounds in New Zealand. The stadium has reverted back to its original name of Seddon Park starting in the 2006/2007 season. The name comes from the street name that the stadium's main entrance is located on.
[edit] Usage
The Ground is used for hosting both One Day International Matches as well as Test Matches. Apart from these, First Class Matches are also played on this ground. It has hosted a total of 9 ODIs and 5 Test Matches. The First ODI played here was between New Zealand and India in which India was defeated.
The ground was also used for one season in 2001 for the majority of Waikato and Chiefs rugby home games. Temporary stands were raised for the games. Rugby returned to the newly built Waikato Stadium for the following year.
