Multi-million dollar cricket centre makes Canberra destination for stars

Cricket ACT chairman Greg Boorer struggled to wipe the smile from his face when he was joined by Australian cricket star Ellyse Perry to cut the ribbon on The Boorer Family Cricket Centre at Radford College on Friday morning.

The near $6 million project has been a decade in the making, and the centre - which is set to be open year-round for public use - boasts eight indoor cricket nets and administrative facilities.

The centre will alleviate pressure on Cricket ACT's existing facilities at Phillip Oval, providing another option for international teams on the hunt for training venues while in town to play at Manuka Oval.

It means the Indian team could use Radford College as a base this summer when they arrive in Canberra for a day-night Prime Minister's XI clash. The two-day fixture between India and the Prime Minister's XI is likely to be played as a two-day game in late November, placed between Tests in Perth and Adelaide.

Boorer jokes the indoor centre means Radford players will never be able to use rain as an excuse to miss training, and revealed ambitions to see more facilities of its kind across Canberra.

"I've been lucky to travel all around the world. I was, just a couple of weeks ago, at the Lord's indoor cricket centre in London and this is a better facility than that," Boorer said.

"I've taken lots of inspiration from all the different facilities I've visited around the world, and tried to take the best elements. I've even spoken to a lot of the owners of organisations that run them to say 'if you had your time again, what would you do differently?'

"Everyone has been really supportive of helping us get the best possible outcome. This is the standard for an indoor training facility for Australia and the world today.

"It's envisaged high performance teams will be able to train here. Cricket is growing so rapidly in Canberra and Phillip only has a certain amount of capacity.

"This will provide overflow capacity for the high performance programs, but also a wonderful world-class standard training facility for international teams when they're visiting Canberra to prepare for matches, for example the upcoming Prime Minister's XI game against India."

If someone needed more proof of the centre's quality, Perry puts the Radford training compound "right alongside any of the facilities I've trained in".

Perry was on hand to mingle with Radford College students, and the star all-rounder will return to Canberra later this summer with Manuka Oval set to host a crucial Twenty20 during the women's Ashes.

"The white balls have a huge role in the multi-format series. In the last series over in England, they got the better of us in both of those formats," Perry said.

"We love playing at Manuka Oval, it's a great venue, it'll play a big role in the outcome of the Ashes series. We always get wonderful support here so it will be great to be back here."

Manuka Oval will host the second Twenty20 international of the multi-format series on January 23, before the series wraps up with a history-making day-night Test match at the MCG.

"Having the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh at the start of our summer straight into the WBBL is really exciting," Perry said.

"For that to culminate in an Ashes Test match at the MCG, the first day-night Test match there, and some really high ambitions to make sure we've got one event with big crowds was a real placeholder for us."