Thursday, May 28, 2015

The 10 Most Beautiful Cricket Grounds In The World



HPCA Stadium, Dharamsala, India. A cricket ground where a bowler can accurately be described as running in from the Himalayas end is clearly an unusual addition to the international circuit. The Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association advertise their new stadium as "the most attractive ground in India", and that is not an idle boast. At an elevation of 4,110 feet, it will this weekend become the highest international ground in the world, and it is overlooked by the Dhauladhar range of the Himalayas that includes snow-capped peaks three times higher. The air is crisp, Vultures and Eagles soar nearby, and the Dalai Lama has established his Tibetan Government in Exile just up the hill in Mcleodganj. Worcester it isn't.


Queenstown Event Centre, New Zealand. Stunning backdrop of the Remarkables, although offset by the airport immediately beyond the perimeter of the ground. Even that has its appeal though. 

 
 Pukekura Park is the most beautiful cricket ground I have seen. I watched an England XI play a Shell XI there in February, 1988. The ground is surrounded by exotic plants from the botanical garden, there is a lake and the whole idyll is presided over by an almost perfectly conical volcano. Absolutely stunning.

 
Recreation Ground, Antigua. Beauty in a different form. Ramshackle, but in its pomp, the most vibrant cricket ground in the world.

 
 Lynton & Lynmouth CC, Devon. In the Valley of the Rocks in North Devon overlooked by two giant tors with the sea beyond. But they don’t play first class cricket there and never will. The boundaries are too short, the thatched pavilion has little room for players let alone the support staff and it is rather more inaccessible than Southampton. But it’s beautiful. I have not played much - correction -any high standard cricket there. But I have represented the Fleet St Wanderers at Lynton. Pukekura Park, oddly, has echoes of Lynton.

 
Wormsley, Bucks. Paul Getty’s own ground, created on his estate. It took an American to create something quintissentially English.

 
Pallekele Stadium, Kandy, Sri Lanka. I was there in the 2011 World Cup, watching New Zealand beat Pakistan. It’s up in the hills outside Kandy, which is a beautiful city itself. It’s tea plantation country, and the stadium is surrounded by gentle hills covered in lush green trees, which run away as far as the horizon. The ground itself has grass banks on either side, for the spectators to sprawl on.

 
Arnos Vale, St Vincent. So close to the Caribbean sea that Chris Gayle could carry the ball into it. Stunning view down the Grenadines.

  The Parks, Oxford. Far from exotic, and probably as far from fashionable as it’s possible to get, the Parks is still a beautiful place to watch cricket. Set in one of Oxford’s few municipal open spaces, the cricket ground is an emblem of inclusivity in a city of high windows, introduced against the will of the colleges in the century to provide public sporting space. Not only is it picturesque in that slightly twee north Oxford way, it is also still the only free first class ground in the country. Simply turn up, sit down by the boundary rope and try - it is best if you can - to ignore the students.

 
 Asgiriya, Kandy, Sri Lanka. For sheer colour, augmented, on the neighbouring hillside by the saffron robes of monks from the nearby monastery.

  Beausejour Stadium, St Lucia. I was there in 2009, watching the World Twenty20. Up in the north of the island, the only way to get to it is down a long dirt track past a bunch of factories and canneries. But the ground itself is in the dip in the earth, overlooked by two mountains. There’s a rum shack perched half way up one of them, and canny locals congregate there to watch the match for free. The stands are bright and colourful, all painted columns and wooden seats.

  New Road, Worcester. Not terribly original, I know, but as someone who had spent his formative years (and a fair proportion of the years since) watching cricket at Old Trafford, a first visit to Worcester for a Benson and Hedges Cup quarter final in May 1995 was a revelation. The walk through town and across the river to the ground, the trees, the Cathedral, the lovely old white buildings - some of which survive, thank goodness. It’s blissful county cricket.  original source - http://www.theguardian.com/

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