"It made perfect sense and we did it in conjunction with New Zealand Cricket to say we won't have any of the under-19 games. Let's get the park right for future years."
Asked if there was an element of disappointment, Dalton replied: "To be honest, it's an element of relief because we want to get this park absolutely right and that's what we intend on doing.
"We're taking the big picture view [so] we're not in the slightest bit interested in the short-term view and we're going to have a park that attracts international and national cricket and rugby games for years to come and we're going to do it right."
Dalton said the more than $2 million revamp of McLean Park was a "massive project" and was expertly run.
"We're all on track and the grass is growing so we're all under way to do this absolutely correctly."
Brendan Bourke, the tourney director of the LOC for the cup, said it was a competitive process with 12 arenas in the equation before four host cities, embracing seven venues, prevailed.
They are Christchurch (Hagley Oval, Rangiora Oval, Bert Sutcliffe Oval and Lincoln No3), Queenstown (John Davis Oval), Tauranga (Bay Oval) and Whangarei (Cobham Oval).
In announcing the host cities yesterday, NZ Cricket chief executive David White said the tourney was a great opportunity for the country to showcase itself on the world stage.
Game two of the Chapple-Hadlee Series between the Black Caps and Australia here was abandoned without a ball bowled due to an outfield unfit to play on February 2 following some morning drizzle
Bourke said there was a "slight possibility" McLean Park could have been completed on time but there was uncertainty surrounding it, with the first game starting on January 13 and the Mitre 10 Cup rugby culminating on October 20, provided the Magpies make the second-tier championship final.
"The risk was so high that come December 20th if they told us they weren't going to be ready we would have had to find another venue," he said.
Bourke said he had had frank discussions with council chief executive Wayne Jack and council events manager Kevin Murphy.
"It was a tough call but we took that in with all the other bits so Napier made a strong bid as well but, at the end of the day, we had to make sure the risk was going to be a lot lesser than it would have been had we gone with Napier."
He said every contender vying for games had fitted the bill but the intention was to avoid metropolitan venues, such as Eden Park (Auckland) and Westpac Stadium (Wellington), because smaller capacity stadiums were desirable to take the code to parts of the country that don't host such games.
Jack last night emphasised the revamp was not a quick upgrade but a significant redevelopment of the turf, including a new irrigation system and playing surface.
"That's why it's great to work with New Zealand Cricket and then look at the full programme [so] Bill's exactly right because we need to get it right.
"We didn't want to run the risk of not having the park ready because the time frame's very tight between the start of it and the under-19s."
Jack said the park would be ready for the internationals in the coming summer but had to forgo the cup tourney.
Central Districts chief executive Pete de Wet said while it was a deal between the council and NZ Cricket, it meant the Stags would have more games in the region's prime real estate.
"It is out of our hands but if you look at the host cities they've chosen there's a pretty big spread of where cricket is happening," said De Wet.
"It's obviously always good to have global entertainment in your region so it would have been good [to stage games here] but we're going to be replanting McLean Park for selfish reasons so that's how we see it as, anyway."
The outfield work at the park was well advanced and he anticipated the Stags would have access to it in January.
"We'll definitely play two four-day games on drop-in wickets," De Wet said, confirming head groundsman Phil Stoyanoff had prepared three drop-in pitches and a fourth was in the tray across the road at Nelson Park.
De Wet echoed the sentiments that it was imperative to take time to do the job right to ensure there were no issues going forward.
