Otago's hope that it would be able to use its new cricket complex at the University Oval will have to wait another year.

Delays, caused for a variety of reasons, had meant the ground was not ready for first-class match play this summer.

The likely beneficiaries of that are Queen's Park in Invercargill, the Events Centre at Frankton near Queenstown, and Molyneux Park in Alexandra.

Otago Cricket's chief executive Graeme Elliott said today that the loss of groundsman Mark Perham to Auckland's Eden Park had been one factor while there were on-going discussions over the Art Gallery and grandstand at the Oval.

"We could get the ground and pitch ready but the real issue is that there are no facilities," he said.

The Association didn't want to have to use portable facilities and has allocated its games around its districts.

The February 25-28 match scheduled against Auckland is now likely to be in Queenstown, the March 3-6 game against Central Districts in Invercargill and the last round game from March 17-20 against Wellington is likely to be in Alexandra.

Elliott said he would like to have the pitch at the University Oval tested in a second XI game during the season.

Meanwhile, he said the pitch at the Events Centre near Queenstown was looking fine and with recent fine weather it should be in good condition for the One-Day International being staged, for the first time, at the ground on January 4.

Interest in the match had been "pretty good", Elliott said.

© CricInfo