Boxing Day and cricket

Australian cricket fans eagerly awaited the Boxing Day Ashes Test at the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground). They turned up in numbers filling the huge grounds with a capacity crowd of 95,000 on the opening day. They got their money’s worth when Australia batted first and opened David Warner completed a century. 

Among the multi-racial crowds were many Sri Lankans domiciled here to watch the arch rivals Australia and England fight it out. Though the 2017 Ashes Test series has already been won by Australia winning the first three matches, the enthusiasm was still very much there. They wanted to see good cricket being played. And, of course, to have fun and enjoy themselves. Win or lose the ‘Barmy Army’ that tours around whenever England makes a tour, was in full force.

Sri Lanka was well represented at official level with ICC Chief Referee Ranjan Madugalle officiating as Match Referee and ICC Panel Umpire Kumar Dharmasena as one of the two field umpires.

The much talked-about MCG has been identified as being much more than just a sports venue. “It’s a place where memories are made and childhood dreams come alive,” is how it is described. 

The MCG dates back to the 1850s. It has been established in 1853, less than 20 years after the founding of Melbourne. It has been the home of Australian football since 1859, and was the birthplace of Test cricket in 1877 and one-day international cricket in 1971.

It was the main stadium for the 1956 Olympic Games and 2006 Commonwealth Games. Up to 100,000 fans gather for the annual AFL Grand Final and it comes to life each Christmas at the Boxing Day Test.

Other sporting spectacles held at the MCG include World Cup soccer qualifiers, rugby league home and away matches and State of Origin, international rugby union and Austral Wheel Races.

The MCG is much more than Australia’s biggest sporting stadium.  It has hosted Papal and Royal visits and housed US Marines, the US Army Air-forces and Australia’s own RAAF during World War II. It has also been a concert venue for international and local performers, held open days, charity events, dinners and many more.

I visited the MCG a few years back at a time when no matches were being played. Along with other visitors I joined a guided tour which was most informative and interesting. No wonder it is being ‘sold’ as “an absolute ‘must’ on any Melbourne visit”. An elderly female volunteer took us round. 

The National Sports Museum at the MCG is considered unique amongst sports and stadium museums around the world. It brings together the history of the Melbourne Cricket Club and the MCG itself as well as more than 3,500 objects across countless sports.  At least I remember one thing that I was fascinated with in the museum. We went into a room where Shane Warne was to meet us. At the appointed hour he came and started demonstrating how he bowls, in great detail. It took us a minute or two to realise that it was a ‘fake’ Shane Warne. The model was so close to actual Warne and the actions were so real. Of course, they used a recording of his voice to do all the talking.

One thing II was disappointed with was that we were not allowed to take photographs at several places during the tour.

PS: As I write this column, England opening batsman, former captain Alistair Cook scoring 247 not out created a new record by becoming the highest scorer among foreign players to play at the MCG. Earlier the record was held by West Indies legend Vivian Richards who scored 208 in 1986.