The Buffalo Grove Park District agrees to reopen the cricket ground, but the league is still suspended

The Buffalo Grove Park District turned the course on Tuesday and decided to open a cricket field in Green Lake Park in response to social media outrage and an online petition.

The decision comes two weeks after the park area has installed football goals in parts of the field to prevent play in response to complaints from 1101 Green Knolls Drive park neighbors.

According to district officials, cricket league players have left equipment in a nearby sensory garden and gym, used the sensory garden as a mine, burned cigarettes there in violation of regional policy, and urinated into trees.

Park area director Ryan Risinger met with the district administration team on Tuesday and decided to reopen the field for recreational use, said communications and marketing manager Mike Terson. However, the league game license has been suspended, although district officials say they are open to discussion about reinstatement.

Terson said football goals will be removed within the next couple of days, allowing the game to continue on the field, a new feature in the recently remodeled park.

Rajesh Hatkar, one of more than 440 people to sign online petition, said he and his two sons want to play on the field, but arrived there on Saturday morning to consider it impossible.

“To my surprise, we found that on the cricket field, they have set two (football) goal posts,” he said. “At first we thought it was someone’s accident. But we didn’t notice (the targets) nailed to the ground and chained so no one could lift it.”

Buffalo Grove resident Felicia Ross, who initiated the petition, expressed concern that the park area treated the field differently from other facilities, such as football fields.

“My kids were playing football. After every football game, there was rubbish on the field,” he said. “The kids leave their water bottles or older coffee cups. They never closed the football fields.”

“I can’t imagine why they would close it for five months,” Ross added.

Terson said the park area tried to deal with problems with the cricket league organizers, but “they hadn’t reacted or, when the permit was suspended, they showed up anyway.”

Other problems are teams that start matches as early as 6.30am, when the permit required them to start no earlier than 8am, he added.

“People whose homes are bordered by a park don’t have to look at adult men urinating on a tree when they’re repeatedly told not to do so and that they can no longer use the community cricket ground,” Terson said.

Regarding whether the cricket field was treated differently, Terson said the district has closed other facilities when problems arose.

“When we’ve had problems at a skate park, for example, we’ve closed the skate park,” he said.