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The architecture of cricket grounds
By Will last year, mid-June, 3 Comments »
Riya from the Architecture Journal wrote in to let me know of a piece they’ve done: six of the best cricket grounds.
They are, in descending order:
- DY Patil Stadium, Mumbai, India
- MCG, Melbourne, Australia
- Kensington Oval, Barbados
- Newlands, Cape Town, South Africa
- Gadaffi Stadium, Lahore, Pakistan
- Winner: Lord’s, London, England
1. Lord’s, London, England
As well as Victorian architect Thomas Verity’s Pavilion, which still stands, completed in 1890, the architects who have made additions to ‘The Home of Cricket’ is a who’s who of the significant hi-tech architects of the late twentieth century. Most famous is the Lord’s Media Centre, which won Jan Kaplicky and Amanda Levete’s Future Systems the Stirling Prize in 1999.
The bulbous form is supported above the ground by two lift shafts and its glazed facade give journalists and commentators an uninterrupted view of the ground. The curved structure was fabricated using boat-building technology and was the first all aluminium, semi-monocoque building in the world.
Adjacent to this is Nicholas Grimshaw & Partners Grandstand, completed in 1996. The stand is a three tier post-tensioned structure with capacity for 6,200 spectators.
Completing the high-tech group, Hopkins and Partners designed Lord’s Mound Stand, an intervention that retained the original Victorian arcade on the ground’s exterior while building a new steel superstructure topped off with an exuberant fabric canopy of PVC-coated polyester fabric.
Less public, but an important project nevertheless, is David Morley Architects’ Indoor Cricket School on the same site. It was the first indoor facility to utilise natural light for the playing area.
Should the Sir Viv Richards Stadium be banned?
By Will last year, mid-February, 4 Comments »
The new poll is up at the site. Go and vote (it’s on the right-hand-side).
There was a brief but startling line from Donald Peters, the CEO of the West Indies board, which appeared on a TMS blog earlier today. I was amazed no other news outlet bothered with it, because it seemed rather important, so I ran with it.
Donald Peters, the chief executive of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), has said that his board are not prepared to “take the risk” of ever playing at the Sir Viv Richards Stadium again, 24 hours after the second Test between West Indies and England was abandoned due to a sandy outfield.
The match only lasted 10 balls, as both Jerome Taylor and Fidel Edwards struggled to gain traction on a bedding made largely of soft sand, and it was soon consigned to history after the match referee, Alan Hurst, deemed it too dangerous for play.
“I would recommend they play soccer there from now on,” Peters told BBC’s Test Match Special. “The amount of funding it would take to make that into a Test venue again will be significant. I would advise the government and local cricket association to put their resources into restoring the Recreation Ground. The West Indies Cricket Board will not go back to the Viv Richards Stadium. We are not prepared to take the risk.”
The decision hasn’t yet been made whether or not the ICC will ban the ground. It will cost oodles of dosh to re-invent the old Rec, too – but that, surely, is the more sensible option. I am so geared up for this third Test now it’s being staged at the famous old ground, and we hear a good local crowd will be there too. Hopefully. Which makes a change from the disgrace of North Sound.
4 Comments »Essex finally win a Twenty20 competition
By Emma 4 years ago, mid-September, No Comments; be the first!
Essex look almost certain to win the Pro40 this year, and as they cruised to victory in the Twenty20 Floodlit Cup yesterday, it was easy to see why. Derbyshire did well to contain the Eagles to a total below 200 after Irani and Pettini made 60 in just under six overs. However, the game dawdled to an end when Phantoms wickets fell to insufficient cost to challenge their target.
Whilst the result was predictable, I had forgotten how much I liked visiting Derbyshire. The former Race Course Ground is some 11,000 seats light of my usual haunt, and its team are often viewed as the minnows of county cricket, but the friendliness found from fan to steward to player gives the place a strong community feel. A Test ground might have a superior square, year of tradition or impressive facilities. But you can’t tell me there is anything purer than watching a game from a chair you’ve had to pull from a stack and place at the boundary yourself.
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