Brad Van Dam's 13-year tenure as head curator of Manuka Oval will end next week, and he'll be going out on a high after the busiest cricketing summer ever seen in Canberra.

And while Canberra's premier cricket and Australian Rules venue loses one of its great recent stalwart's, it picks up a man more than qualified to follow in his footsteps.

Fahey spent two years as Van Dam's second hand in Canberra before taking up a position as assistant curator at the Sydney Cricket Ground. His CV also includes a summer spent helping out at Wimbledon

"[They are] huge shoes to fill but really excited for what's to come," Fahey said.

"Brad's very anal in what he teaches but credit to that, you know it back to front and what's expected.

"We need to keep world-class standards and that's something I'll be striving for."

Just how hard an act to follow is Van Dam?

For starters he's helped turn Manuka Oval into one of the world's premier wickets, one which consistently ranks highly through the International Cricket Council's rating system.

But those results are underpinned by an unwavering and peerless work ethic.

Take the 2012 Prime Minister's XI match against Sri Lanka.

Van Dam was having a drink at the Lodge the night before the game, when the rain rolled in.

MORE CANBERRA SPORT

He went and stayed in the cottage just behind Manuka's historic scoreboard, and was up at 2am the morning of the match to sit on the super sopper and try and remove the excessive rain which had been soaking into the outfield.

Despite Van Dam's efforts, the rain persisted and that match was abandoned.

Or take that World Cup match between the West Indies and Zimbabwe in 2015.

Van Dam was at his home in Curtin when he spied a rippling grey sky surging towards Canberra through the Tuggeranong Valley.

He raced to Manuka Oval, and by the time he arrived it had been severely battered by a storm which produced 40mm of rain in the space of about 20 minutes.

The centre wicket was just about underwater, but luckily it had been covered up before Van Dam left earlier that day.

As the storm abated, quick as it had arrived, Van Dam and his team went to work.

Play started on time the next day, and West Indian superstar Chris Gayle smashed his highest one-day international score of 215, treating the Canberra crowd to 16 sixes.

Marlon Samuels plundered 133 not out at the other end, and the pair combined for a staggering 372-run partnership.

"I always say that I don't really take too much from the ICC and the pitch ratings and rankings," Van Dam said.

"As I always say to my guys we always try and produce the best. Sometimes the best can't be the best because of many many factors that can be involved in preparation of the ground.

"If we always try and do the best then hopefully the ratings come along with being very good."

Van Dam's longest summer was his last.

As late as November last year Manuka Oval was not scheduled for any elite cricket over the summer.

COVID-19 intervened, and Manuka Oval became Cricket Australia's beacon of safety, stepping up to host two internationals and an astonishing 13 Big Bash matches - sometimes after just a few days of notice.

For Van Dam it was business as usual. As his wife Louise and children Josh and Chloe went on holidays, he stayed behind and ensured the Big Bash survived the pandemic.

"It was the really big summer that was never going to happen," Van Dam said.

"I only really had two days off in about 60 or 70 days, Christmas Day, and the other day was a rainy day when we couldn't do anything. For me, the game's got to get on.

"That's what we're here for, to produce these surfaces for the end user. The great thing is the end user is the national teams and the international teams.

"I spend a lot of time here at the oval, the majority of weekends are not spent with the family. That's the main catalyst. I'll have a few more weekends with the family and so on so it's going to be good.

"It's time to change before I do get too old and I can't change."