5 great cricket venues to visit before you die

3. Melbourne Cricket Ground

100,000 people potentially watching on, as you ply your trade. That is what you get at the MCG. Add to this, the occasion of Boxing Day when the MCG hosts its annual test match, and you get an absolute festive feel when at the ground.

Much like Newlands, the crowd here knows to get behind its team. Australia have so many times bounced back from dodgy situations at “The G”, where they were massively aided by the “12th Man”.

Australia have an enviable record at The G as well. Since the turn of the century, they’ve lost only two tests there, to South Africa in 2008, and to England in 2010. Apart from that, they’ve been dominant, and having as big a crowd to back you, as the MCG provides, is a huge bonus.