SACA has unveiled its new $10 million community sporting pavilion at Narnungga (Park 25), officially naming the upgraded main ground as Karen Rolton Oval.

The facilities in the western parklands were officially opened on Thursday morning by SACA President Andrew Sinclair, who said the facilities were a coup for South Australian cricket.

“Now we have these wonderful new cricket facilities on the doorstep of the Adelaide CBD - and only a short distance from Adelaide Oval - featuring a ground of first-class standard next door to three other ovals with turf pitches,” Sinclair said.

“This a significant piece of core infrastructure that will benefit all levels, from underage, school, community, and country cricket through to Premier Cricket, our high performance and State programs, to our WBBL and BBL teams, and is also ideal for hosting carnivals.”

Karen Rolton Oval was officially opened on Thursday



The three-level pavilion has six changerooms, including state-of-the-art women’s facilities, tiered seating, sculptured viewing terraces, a function room and player viewing areas.

Sinclair said SACA was proud to name the redeveloped main oval after former South Australian and Australian captain Karen Rolton.

Rolton, who earlier this year was inducted into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame, played 14 Tests, 141 one-day internationals and 15 T20Is between 1995 and 2009, scoring more than 5800 runs and posting 10 centuries.

A two-time World Cup winner (in 1997 and 2005), Rolton remains the only woman to score a century in a World Cup final, having made 107 in the 2005 decider against India.

She has scored more Test runs (1002) than any other Australian and her 209 not out against England in 2001 was the women’s Test record score until last November, when Australia’s Ellyse Perry made an unbeaten 213 against England.

“It’s such a fantastic honour,” said Rolton, who also played 114 games for South Australia, scoring 5521 runs and taking 106 wickets.

“It’s still really weird to see my name actually up on the building. It’s such a fantastic development now and something I’m really proud of.”