Bourda Cricket Stadium

Bourda Cricket Stadium, also known as Georgetown Cricket Club Ground is a cricket ground located in Georgetown, Guyana. It has the capacity to hold 22,000 spectators.

It has two stands namely Regent Street End and North Road End.

History

The ground was established in the year 1884 and is regarded as one of the oldest stadium in the Caribbean.

It is the only stadium in the world which is situated below sea level. The stadium is uniquely surrounded by moat to prevent ground from flooding.

The first match was played here in March 1930, featuring West Indies and England where the hosts trashed England by 289 runs.

The ground has produced legendary players like Clive Lloyd, Sir Garfield Sobers and Wes Hal. Bourda Cricket Stadium hosted its first ODI in March, 1988 when West Indies played South Africa.

Major Matches

The ground has hosted a total of 30 Test matches,10 ODI’s and numerous first class matches in the stadium.

In 1994, Shivnarine Chanderpaul played a valuable 50 which helped West Indies draw the Wisden Trophy match against England.

The ground however did not host any match after 2006 as the matches got shifted to Providence Stadium and since then it hosts only first class matches.

Controversies

The ground has often been affected by the mini riots and pitch invasions that affected the matches. In 1962-1964, many matches that were to be played in the ground got shifted to other venues due to political instability in the region.

In 1979, during the World Series Cricket Super Test, the pavilion was ransacked and the players were forced to hide in the changing rooms with helmets for extra protection.

In 1999, during a match between West Indies and Australia the pitch was invaded by the mob when 4 runs were required to win of the last ball of the match. Due to this volatile nature of the crowd, the result was not announced till the crowd was cleared.

Recent Matches

Last Test played here was between West Indies and South Africa in March 2005 during the South Africa tour of West Indies which resulted in a draw.

West Indies hosted Zimbabwe in the last ODI in this venue in the year 2006 during the Zimbabwe’s tour to West Indies which resulted in favor of West Indies.