Ashes grounds rated
Lord's unsurprisingly ranks as the top ground for an Ashes Test while Sophia Gardens is one of the least preferred among 45 county cricketers surveyed in the London-based magazine Property Week .
Nishi Narayanan
25-Feb-2013
Lord's unsurprisingly ranks as the top ground for an Ashes Test while Sophia Gardens is one of the least preferred among 45 county cricketers surveyed in the London-based magazine Property Week.
3.) Headingley – 42.8%
The home of Yorkshire County Cricket Club scraped into third place by 0.4%. Only one of the 45 cricketers polled said it was his Ashes ground of choice. Five said it was second favorite, 20 said it was third favorite, 18 said it was fourth and 1 said it was least favorite. Headingley is also embarking on redevelopment of part of the site. In March it was granted planning consent for the £21m, 45,000 sq ft Carnegie Pavilion. The pavilion, being built by Bam Construction, is expected to complete in May 2010.
4.) Oval – 42.2%
The Oval could do with some improvement, so it is just as well that the Kennington ground was granted planning consent by the Secretary of State earlier this month for a £35m redevelopment which will increase capacity to 25,000 and will include a four-star 168 bed hotel. Surrey County Cricket Club and Arora International Hotels developing the plans. In the survey, only one cricketer said the Oval was his favorite ground to host an Ashes test match. Eleven put it as second choice, eleven at third, 17 at fourth and five in fifth.
Nishi Narayanan is a staff writer at ESPNcricinfo