Edgbaston Cricket Ground

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Thwaite Memorial Scoreboard

Edgbaston Cricket Ground (sometimes called Edgbaston Stadium) is a cricket venue in the Edgbaston area of Birmingham, England. It is home to Warwickshire County Cricket Club, and is also used for Test matches and one day internationals. The ground capacity is 21,000.

Edgbaston's most recognisable feature is the Thwaite Memorial Scoreboard, at the City End of the ground. In recent years Edgbaston has been redeveloped and now boasts an Indoor Cricket Centre, a cricket shop, a new large electronic scoreboard and the large Eric Hollies Stand.

Edgbaston gained Test status in 1902. The ground has witnessed some historic cricketing moments, including Brian Lara's 501 against Durham in 1994, Australia's tie with South Africa in the 1999 Cricket World Cup semi final, and one of the closest ever Test Matches, Australia's two-run defeat to England in the 2005 Ashes.

In 2005, the possibility of a ground share between Warwickshire County Cricket Club and Birmingham City FC, at a 55,000 seat City of Birmingham Stadium, was mooted, signalling a possible end for the Edgbaston ground. However many people may oppose this move. In a much promoted advertising campaign Ian Botham was quoted as saying that the Edgbaston crowd was "like a 12th man". The chances of this happening in the near future fell when Birmingham was not awarded a supercasino licence in 2007. In 2007 Warwickshire announced plans for a £20 million redevelopment of Edgbaston which would incorporate a new pavilion and take capacity to over 25,000. ^[1] This is subject to obtaining finance and planning permission.