Grace Road
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Grace Road is a cricket venue, in Leicester, England, home to Leicestershire County Cricket Club. Contrary to popular belief, the road itself was named after a local property owner, not W. G. Grace.
Contents |
[edit] History
The land which Grace Road is built on was bought by Leicestershire County Cricket Club in 1877 from the then Duke of Rutland. The first match played on the ground took place just three months later against the touring Australia team. A game which Leicestershire won.
Leicestershire did leave the Grace Road site in 1901 for largely economic reasons. They were based on a site near to Aylestone Road. Leicestershire did eventually return to Grace Road after the end of the second world war and have been based their ever since, buying the land back in 1966.
[edit] International Cricket
There have been been three One-day Internationals played at Grace Road, unfortunately none have involved England. The first game was in the 1983 Cricket World Cup between Zimbabwe and the eventual winners India. India showed their class and easily chased down a target of 156 to win by 5 wickets. The Zimbabwean team was incidentally captained by current England coach Duncan Fletcher
The second and third games were both in the more recent 1999 World Cup. This time Zimbabwe beating India by three runs. Then the Leicestershire public later saw the West Indies thrashing Scotland by 8 wickets.
[edit] Future Development
There is seemingly little chance of Grace Road ever being a test match venue. Leicestershire's owners seem very reluctant to make any significant investment, and there is little demand for two test match venues in the East Midlands.
