Lord’s may be the ‘home of cricket’ but in London there are two, magnificent cricket venues and there is no doubt, from crowd figures alone, which is the more popular.
Lord’s has all the tradition and history, the Kia Oval has all the facilities, nous and understanding of the modern, changing game.
There is a misunderstanding about Lord’s and its host county – that they belong together. They do not. Middlesex County Cricket Club are merely tenants at the behest of the MCC and are frequently chucked out of the famous venue to make way for the myriad of fixtures it is committed to hosting every year, right down to the English village cricket club final.
The Oval, on the other hand, has been free to develop itself without constraints since its inception in 1845 when it was developed from a ‘cabbage patch’ and turned into Surrey County Cricket Club before quickly developing into the first venue to stage test cricket, in 1880. Ten years earlier, presumably, before the outfield was as cherished as it is now, it staged England’s first football international in 1870.
Development of the stadium in the last decade has been extraordinary, not just in terms of capacity but also in the forward-thinking of the architects and hosts who clearly had the best interests of fans in mind rather than just their wallets and credit cards.
Access is easy via The Oval Tube station and Vauxhall train station and there is an abundance of open space beneath the stands, most of which have been rebuilt in the last 15 years, to accommodate patrons’ needs for food and drink. But The Oval’s chief characteristic, made possible by the fact that Surrey is comfortably England’s wealthiest county, is the warmth and sincerity with which it greets its visitors. Not everyone can afford to offer coffee and biscuits to all comers, but The Oval does. And more besides.
Hashim Amla’s epic 311 not out at the venue in 2012 remains South Africa’s greatest individual triumph on the ground but there have been many over the years, not least Jacques Kallis’ 182* and Dale Steyn’s second innings return of 5-56 in the same fixture which led to victory by an innings and 12-runs despite England scoring 385 in their first innings after being 251 for two.
Visitors to The Oval are, naturally, subjected to all the usual security checks and protocols. But the staff conduct them in a very ‘South London’ friendly way. It’s like a mate is checking you for poisonous spiders rather than a cop looking for bombs.
In the late 1970s and 1980s, conservative, white Britons reacted with ‘concern’ towards the increasing numbers of cricket-lovers from the Caribbean who attended games at The Oval and cheered emphatically at every West Indian success, of which there were many. These days it might be fair to suggest The Oval is the most multicultural international cricket venue in the country.