Albury Council has passed up the opportunity to host a four-day Sheffield Shield cricket match in February in the hope of securing an AFL practice match in mid-March.

Wagga has snapped up one of the cricket matches with its council agreeing to enter into a three-year partnership with Cricket NSW which will also see an under-14 start carnival played in the following two summers.

The deal is contingent on both parties contributing $45,000 each and follows a $300,000 deal over three years for Wagga to host AFL pre-season games involving Greater Western Sydney.

Albury mayor Kevin Mack said he had paid close attention to Wagga’s ways of attracting major events.

“Wagga can go their hardest,” he said.

“But we are not in the business of underwriting games.

“We don’t believe ratepayers’ money should be spent attracting elite sport when it should be the duty of the elite codes to develop the game regionally.

“We shouldn’t have to pay for the privilege.”

Last summer, Albury hosted an A-League soccer match for points and a Super Rugby trial with the council contribution limited to ground preparation and promotion of the game.

Cr Mack said an AFL pre-season game would deliver a bigger economic benefit to the city compared with a four-day Sheffield Shield cricket game.

He said the timing of the cricket match didn’t allow enough time to prepare Lavington Oval for an AFL game.

“It is not a case of we didn’t want the game,” he said.

“But it jeopardised our expressions of interest for the AFL game.

“If we prepared the centre wicket for cricket we wouldn’t get a NAB Cup game.”

Cr Mack conceded Albury was no certainty to get an AFL game and all regional areas were on a level playing field through the expressions of interest process.

The council also had no control over when the game would be played or the teams if successful.

A decision will be made in mid-August and a match could be played mid-week.

“We are as confident as we possibly can be, but we can’t say categorically we will get one,” Cr Mack said.