The University of Leeds Sports Park Weetwood was used as a training ground for many of the international teams during this year’s Cricket World Cup. It played host to world-class teams including England, Sri Lanka and the West Indies, where teams trained in between matches.
It was a huge privilege for Sports Park Weetwood to be chosen as a training ground. Our facilities looked fantastic, a credit to Dave Thackeray and his grounds team. Head of Sport, Suzanne Glavin said;
“Providing our sports facilities for visiting world-class international teams is a real opportunity for us to promote globally, in addition to creating valuable new working relationships around education, sport and global exchanges for the betterment of both our staff and students. It was lovely to receive feedback from Chandima Mapatuna, Head of Sri Lanka International Cricket that Sports Park Weetwood was a quality training venue, the hospitality was fantastic and the University catering was the best they had in the entire six weeks of touring.”
The Sri Lankan team have fed back that they are interested in bringing the Sri Lanka International programme to the University in future years.
This year’s Cricket World Cup has seen some incredible sporting moments, with the Emerald Headingley Cricket Ground hosting a handful of fixtures including; England v Sri Lanka on the 21 June, Pakistan v Afghanistan on 29 June and Afghanistan v West Indies on 4 July.
This is not the first time that the University of Leeds has been chosen by high profile international sports teams, proving the role that sport plays in reaching global markets and supporting the University’s international focus.
- The Chinese Olympic team used the University as a base before London 2012.
- Sports Park Weetwood was chosen as a training ground by the Australian Schoolboys Rugby League team.
- Only last month the University played host to the MCCU V Yorkshire first class cricket match.
- The Edge was used by the Canadian wheelchair rugby team as a training camp prior to the 2012 Paralympics.
- The Edge was used by the North Queensland Cowboys rugby team in preparation for the Dacia World Club Challenge in 2016.
- And Sports Park Weetwood has also hosted the England, rugby union Six Nations Training squad in previous years.
We went up to capture the Sri Lankan team in action – check out our Facebook album to see the rest of the photos.
