Spain's Campo Maximo stadium aims to host a Test match
Australian entrepreneur Daniel Weston has begun construction of Campo Maximo, an environmentally sustainable cricket stadium at Playa Flamenca on the Costa Blanca near Alicante, Spain, and told the Stumped podcast he would like it to host a Test match one day. Construction had already started as of 22 October 2026 and the site is about a 45-minute drive from Alicante.
Weston, the founder of the European Cricket Network who played T20 international cricket for Germany after relocating to Munich in 2007, said he wants the venue to become the "home of European cricket" and to stage higher-profile fixtures. He added: "I also think the Indian Premier League will start going on tour like the NFL, and maybe one day they might want to play a game in Spain." Weston has wanted to build a cricket ground since his father presented him with a painting of the WACA in 1989 when he was six.
The ground's most distinctive innovation will be a new type of artificial outfield engineered to replicate the playing characteristics and feel of natural grass; Weston describes it as "a short-pile artificial playing surface without loose granular infill", installed over an elastic pad and specially engineered drainage layers. The synthetic turf is intended to reduce maintenance compared with natural grass and will not require fertiliser, with floodlights enabling play "365 days and nights a year".
Weston said the surface has been subjected to laboratory testing designed to simulate match conditions: "I was up there in the lab last week. We're using bowling spikes, the toughest cricket shoes, simulating the fast bowlers pounding into it," and he added, "It'll be consistent, you won't have dips and you won't have places where water accumulates. I think the future will be artificial outfields." He also said he believes the artificial outfield will be "better" than natural grass for cricket.
Campo Maximo will feature a nine-pitch square, with Weston favouring a clay-based pitch, and an initial spectator capacity of 1,000 that can be increased using temporary or semi-permanent stands. There are plans for a hotel adjacent to a nearby golf course a short distance from the site.
On sustainability, Weston said: "I'm a big into sustainable renewables. I want to try and think 20, 30, 50 years in the future," and outlined technical measures including around 4,600 square metres of solar panels over the car park feeding batteries to power site functions such as the floodlights, and "100,000 cubic metre tanks under the field" to store recycled water. He emphasised water recycling as a major element of the project.
Cricket Espana is an Associate member of the ICC, and the article notes there is nothing in ICC regulations preventing a Test between two full members being staged in Spain, while the Laws of Cricket do not require the wider playing area to be natural grass. The ICC permits hybrid turf/fibre outfields and does not specifically ban a 100% artificial outfield, but the venue would need to satisfy the ICC that the surface did not pose an injury risk before being approved for major international matches; the article cites Desert Springs in Almeria as an existing Spanish facility used by English counties for pre-season preparation.
The first ball at Campo Maximo is expected to be bowled in 2028, with the ground planned to be fully operational in 2029.