Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on a field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the runs scored by the batting team. A run is scored by the striking batsman hitting the ball with his bat, running to the opposite end of the pitch and touching the crease there without being dismissed. The teams switch between batting and fielding at the end of an innings.
In professional cricket the length of a game ranges from 20 overs of six bowling deliveries per side to Test cricket played over five days. The Laws of Cricket are maintained by the International Cricket Council (ICC) and the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) with additional Standard Playing Conditions for Test matches and One Day Internationals
A game of cricket cannot be played without a proper stadium. There are no international matches held on ‘maidans’ or playgrounds afterall. There are several factors that determine how excellent a stadium actually is. Whether in terms of lighting, crowd capacity, pitches, facilities, aerial view and so on. But there have been just a few which can be termed ‘excellent’ because any stadium can have a pitch or products such as a carpet to cover the pitch or a roller to remove the grass from it as well decent seating. Some of them though go much beyond the basics and have made a name for themselves in cricketing history. Here are those who have been able to do so.
1) Lord’s Cricket Ground, London (England)
Lord’s Cricket Ground
Located in the area of St. John’s Wood in North London, the Lord’s Cricket Ground is definitely one of the finest cricket stadiums in the world. Also known as the ‘Home of Cricket’, Lord’s was once the centre of the cricketing globe, since most of the administrative decisions courtesy the ICC having its headquarters here until 2005, were taken on the premises of this very ground.
For a spectator, there is some aura in the ground the moment you enter it. It is definitely a must see venue atleast once in your lifetime. Since you do not get to see a museum, a gigantic media centre, two restaurants or a Long Room which is the link to the ground from the dressing room, in any other cricket ground. Besides on the ground, there are 30,000 seats in total and has a peculiar slope which makes a long boundary and causes appreciable deviation in bounce of the ball on the pitch, making it easier to move the ball in to right-handed batsmen when bowling from the Pavilion End, and easier to move it away when bowling from the Nursery End.
Lord’s Cricket Ground Pavillion
The founder of this ground was Thomas Lord, and was established in 1814. The first ever international fixture here was an Ashes Test in 1884 between England and Australia. Ever since it has hosted some thrilling matches with respect to both Tests and ODIs, with one of them ofcourse being the NatWest Series final in 2002 when India chased down 326 in 50 overs, famously beating England and Sourav Ganguly, who has fond memories of this ground for enlightening his career, was the captain of India in the game and famously removed his India jersey as a sign of celebration.
Other important games it hosted were the World Cup finals of 1975, 1979, 1983 and 1999 when the tournament was held in England.
For any cricketer, it is a dream come true for represent his country on this ground and especially to have his name on the honours board. Lord’s was the first ground in cricket to recognize the excellent performances of players, irrespective of the fact that they play for England or the opposition team, by putting their name on the board across both the dressing rooms.
It has witnessed some of the finest debut matches for cricketers such as Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and Andrew Strauss with Ganguly and Strauss scoring Test centuries in their very first innings of Test cricket while Dravid missed out on 95. Graham Gooch of England is the highest run scorer in Tests at this venue with 2015 runs, scoring as many as 6 hundreds. While Ian Botham has picked 59 wickets at Lord’s.
The overseas players who have made the maximum impact have been Glenn McGrath, the legendary Australian fast bowler who has picked 26 wickets at Lord’s while Sir Don Bradman has the highest ever individual score on this ground, which is a surprisingly low 254 which led Australia to declare at 729/6, the highest team total as well ever scored at Lord’s.
At the moment, Lord’s is the home of the Marylebone Cricket Club, which is actually the custodian of the game since the ICC acts according to their rules. And the home of Middlesex, one of the counties which participates in English domestic competitions. It is in the plans of hosting the archery competition of the London Olympics in the summer of this year.
Its proud curator is Mick Hunt.
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