Grace Road
 The Pavilion at Grace Road | |||
| Ground information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Location | Leicester, England | ||
| Establishment | 1878 | ||
| Capacity | 12,000 | ||
| End names | |||
| Pavilion End Bennett End | |||
| International information | |||
| First ODI | 11 June 1983: India v  Zimbabwe | ||
| Last ODI | 27 May 1999: Scotland v  West Indies | ||
| Team information | |||
| |||
| As of 8 September 2008 Source: CricketArchive | |||
Grace Road is a cricket ground in Leicester, England. It is the home ground of Leicestershire County Cricket Club and the main administrative base for the County.
History
The land which Grace Road is built on was bought by Leicestershire County Cricket Club in 1877 from the then Duke of Rutland and spent the massive sum of £40,000 on developing a cricket club, athletic track and hotel.[1] The first match played on the ground took place three months later, when Leicestershire beat the touring Australia team. Contrary to popular belief, the road was named after a local property owner, not W. G. Grace.
Leicestershire left the Grace Road site in 1901 due to lack of public transport to the ground causing low crowds.[2] They moved to a site near to Aylestone Road, as it was closer to the city centre. Leicestershire did eventually return to Grace Road after the end of the Second World War in 1946[3] and have been based there ever since, buying the land back in 1966.
The record attendance is 16,000 who watched the match against the touring 1948 Australians.
International Cricket
There have been three One Day Internationals played at Grace Road, although none have involved England.
In the 1983 Cricket World Cup eventual winners India beat Zimbabwe, chasing a target of 156 to win by 5 wickets.[4] The second and third games were both in the 1999 World Cup. In the second Zimbabwe beat India by three runs[5] and in the third the West Indies beat Scotland by eight wickets.[6]
Dimensions
In front of the wicket at both ends the pitch is measured at 56 metres, whilst square of the wicket on both sides the dimensions are recorded as 76 metres. This is larger than most county grounds, but smaller than some of England's major international venues such as The Oval.
See also
References
