Melbourne Cricket Ground is one of the premier sporting venues in Australia. It is the largest cricket stadium in the world with the capacity of 100,024 seats. This ground is home to Melbourne Cricket Club and has National Sports Museum of Australia inside the stadium.
History
MCG was built in 1853, after the Melbourne Cricket Club (MCC) found a necessity to build a stadium for the club. Between 1835 and the early 1860s it was known as the Government or Police Paddock and served as a large agistment area for the horses of the Australian Police. After that Australian Government stipulated that the ground was to be used for cricket and cricket only.
The first cricket match was played on 30 September 1854 between Victoria and New South Wales. The first international test match was played between Australia and England from March 15-19, 1877 which Australia won by 45 runs. And the first ODI match was also played between the same teams on Jan 5, 1971, also won by Australia by 5 wickets.
Major Matches
MCG is always known for its great atmosphere around the ground. The ground has hosted many important international tournaments.
The MCG hosted three pool games as part of the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup as well as a quarter-final, and then the final on 29 March. The finals played between Australia and New Zealand was attended by a record 93,013 number of people.
In a test match against Pakistan in 2016, Australia scored the highest score of the ground 624 runs courtesy of the amazing centuries from Steve Smith and David Warner.
The stadium hosts Boxing Day Test every year, which has become a tradition over the years.
Recent Matches
The last test match on the ground was famous Boxing Day Ashes Test match between England and Australia from 26–30 December 2017. The match ended up in draw.
The last ODI was played between Australia and Pakistan on 15 January 2017, which Pakistan won by 6 wickets.
