Lord’s is perhaps the greatest and most revered cricket stadium. It is widely referred to as the "Home of Cricket” and is home to the world's oldest sporting museum.
Located in St John’s Wood, London it is named after its founder, Thomas Lord. The stadium is owned by the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex County Cricket Club, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), the European Cricket Council (ECC) and, until August 2005, the International Cricket Council (ICC).
Lord's Cricket Ground Stadium Capacity
It has the capacity to hold 28,000 spectators. The team dressing rooms are adorned with honour boards which mark every century made in a Test match on the ground, and all instances of a bowler taking five wickets in a Test innings, and 10 wickets in a Test match.
History
Lord's today is not on its original site, being the third of three grounds that Thomas Lord established between 1787 and 1814. The first ground, now known as Lord's Old Ground, was where Dorset Square is presently located. It was abandoned due to an increase in rent.
The second ground, Lord's Middle Ground, was used from 1811 to 1813 before being abandoned to allow the construction of the Regent’s Canal.
The present ground lies to the north of the middle ground. The earliest known match was MCC vs Hertfordshire on 22 June 1814. MCC won by an innings and 27 runs.
The first international test match played at Lord's was between England and Australia in 1884, where the home side defeated the visitors by an innings and five runs.
Major Matches
On the 7th of September 1963 Lord's hosted the first Gillette Cup final. The Gillette Cup is regarded as the first major One Day International Tournament.
Lords has hosted over 100 international test matches. It was one of the venues for the 2009 ICC Twenty20 World Cup. It hosted several group and elimination matches including the finals, in which Pakistan beat Sri Lanka to win their first World Twenty20 Cup title.
It had the honour of hosting the 2000th international test match played between India and England in 2011.
The current ground celebrated its two hundredth anniversary in 2014. To mark the occasion, on 5 July an MCC XI captained by Sachin Tendulkar played against the Rest of the World XI led by Shane Warne in a 50 overs match.
Controversies
Lord’s slope is a geographical gradient at the Lord’s Stadium which runs from the north end to the south end of the ground.
It gives a seemingly unfair advantage to seam and swing bowlers bowling from the Pavilion and Nursery end respectively. There have been several calls of removal of this slope, but have been rejected by the MCC.
The redevelopment of the ground has generated controversy on a couple of occasions. The controversy surrounding the developments focuses on the financial position of the MCC (Marylebone Cricket Club) and the country.
Recent Matches
The most recent ODI match played at Lord’s was between England Women and India Women on 23rd July, 2017. It was the finals of the 2017 ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup, and the English Women’s team won the match by a margin of 9 runs.
