CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | Contact
As the sun sets on the final day of the Brisbane Test, cricket fans around Australia can all agree there is a little something missing.
The Gabba Pool.
After 5 days of glorious test cricket, and a whole summer of Big Bash to get through – it’s not lost on anyone that the Brisbane cricket ground is being under-utilised.
That fact that the stadium no longer hosts a 20 metre long pool full of drunk yobbos whos heckle is within earshot of the cricketers, is a damn shame. Especially when everybody knows that it can be done.
It was one of the most Queensland ideas to ever exist, even if it was for only two short summers between 2017-2018.
Not only was there a pool, but there was also a pool deck. And everyone kind of just accepted that there would be people swimming and sunbaking on the boundary line.
Unlike other cricket stadiums around Australia, the Gabba is unique in the sense that it does not have a Member’s Stand for Queensland’s rich list to crawl over each other. Attendees must either sit in the stands with the public, or with their loser bosses in a corporate box.
The closest thing that Brisbane has ever had to exclusivity was that pool. And it wasn’t for rich people, it was for people who wore funny costumes and caught the balls that had been knocked in the stands.
Unfortunately, such excitement is no longer appropriate, as Brisbane attempts to present itself as a real city – and one that is worthy of hosting an Olympics seven years time.
But regardless of this wowser rebrand, the people have remained the same.
And the people know what they want.
And the people want the Gabba to bring back that damn pool.
