The Melbourne Cricket Ground, shortly and popularly known as MCG is one of the largest Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park in inner Melbourne. This is the home to the Melbourne Cricket Club and holds the world record for the highest light towers at any sporting venue. The MCG is located within walking distance of the city centre. The commutation to this stadium is very easy with the presence of Richmond and Jolimont train stations.

The MCG is remembered mainly

as the centrepiece stadium of the 1956 Summer Olympics and the 2006 Commonwealth Games. The open-air stadium is also one of the world’s most famous cricket venues. The locals usually refer the MCG, often as “The G”, has also hosted other major events, including International Rules between the Australian Football League and Gaelic Athletic Association, international Rugby union, State of Origin rugby league, FIFA World Cup qualifiers and International Friendly matches. It is also famous in Victoria as the “Spiritual Home of Australian Sport”. The MCG also found berth in the 7 wonders of the sporting world.

The Melbourne Cricket Club (MCC) selected the current MCG site in 1853. The first grandstand at the MCG was built in 1854. More stands came up in the early 20th Century. Australia’s first full colour video scoreboard came up in MCG in 1982. The light towers were installed in 1985 making it perfect for night matches. Cricket match was played in this venue for the first time on 30 September 1854. The first Test cricket match took place in 1877. MCG also has a record of sensational events happening during the matches. One among them happened in 1954-55 England tour when big cracks appeared in the pitch during a very hot Saturday’s play. The first One Day International match was took place in this ground on 5 January 1971, between Australia and England in which Australia won the 40-over match by 5 wickets.

Bookmark It

 Del.icio.us    digg  
 Facebook    Google Bookmarks    Stumble It    Technorati    Yahoo! My Web  
Hide Sites

Born as Pinnaduwage Aravinda de Silva on 17 October 1965 in Colombo, he is a former Sri Lankan cricketer, who is considered one of the finest batsmen produced by the country in world cricket.

De Silva made his debut in Test cricket in 1984 at Lord’s against England. In his early part of the career he was known as a dashing but inconsistent batsman, which earned him the nickname “Mad Max” for his tendency to get out to rash shots. But later he showed up matured and aggressive batting style. He also hold the history of having a successful season of first-class cricket for the English county Kent in 1995 marked a turning point in his

career. De Silva was instrumental in Sri Lanka’s triumph in the 1996 Cricket World Cup. He also has scored a century in each innings of a Test match on two separate occasions. Once of these doubles was 138 and 105, both undismissed, against Pakistan at Colombo’s Sinhalese Sports Club in April 1997. De Silva’s highest test score of 267 happened at Basin Reserve in 1991 against New Zealand. He retired from international cricket in 2003.

Aravinda De Silva joined the English county side Kent in April 1995 after Carl Hooper left Kent to join the West Indies team for the summer. He showed an elegant batting performance in the county cricket owning a couple of brilliant scores taking kent to wins in a row. He was the third most prolific batsman of the County Championship in 1995 after Mark Ramprakash and Nasser Hussain with 1661 runs at an average of 59.32 and six centuries including the highest score of the season, 255.

One of the best performances from him came in the 1996 World Cup Final against Australia, where he took 3 wickets for 42 runs, two catches and then followed that with 107 not out with the bat to secure Sri Lanka a convincing 7 wicket victory. He was also chosen for the Man of the Match award. De Silva was recognized by Wisden in 2002 as the eight most significant batting performance in ODI cricket while his bowling was ranked 82nd in Wisden top 100 bowling chart.

Bookmark It

 Del.icio.us    digg  
 Facebook    Google Bookmarks    Stumble It    Technorati    Yahoo! My Web  
Hide Sites