Playing in the park

Sydney is Australian cricket's sublime heart. The beautiful city is a swarm of sport with rugby league, the posh pursuits of rugby union and Australian rules football (and boating on the harbour), along with the more multicultural recreation of soccer. Summer's relief from parochial football codes, cricket has its finest domain in Sydney.

The city has one of the strongest club cricket systems on earth and, historically, produces the lion's share of the Australian side. Many of the game's greats, from Trumper through Bradman, Benaud, Border, the Waughs, to Steve Smith and Ellyse Perry, were cradled in this town.

For the visitor, Sydney's cricketing culture offers a number of ways to explore the magnificent city beyond more regulation tourist activities. The Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) is always a good destination, even on a rest day, but many of the game's delights are to be found at lower stations of play. Weekends see a flush of amateur cricket, from the highest-level grade competition to lower shires or league games, much of it engaging to watch. Some of the grounds are set in gorgeous surrounds, and frequented by a curious collection of Australian characters, making park cricket a marvellous excursion from the international calendar.

Visiting the SCG
The SCG - not only the best ground in Australia at which to watch international cricket - can be explored on non-match days. Combined tours around the Sydney Football and Cricket Grounds are offered on weekdays and Saturday mornings, during which one is taken through the player facilities, onto the field and into the more rarefied areas restricted to Members. It's not quite the Australian sporting tourist's feast that is the MCG Tour and National Sports Museum (Melbourne, somehow, does such things better than anyone) but a half-day pleasantly spent.

Though fascinating to see the dressing rooms (and their surprising austerity), it is the SCG's traditions that are most impressive. Statues of Sydney's great cricketers - Fred Spofforth, Stan McCabe, Richie Benaud and Steve Waugh - line the oval, while the Members' reserve symbolises the ground's rich past with wood-panelled bars, antique furniture and ornate stands. The tour concludes underneath the Ladies' Pavilion in the SCG Museum (accessible only to Members on match day), which contains bats, baggy greens, pictures and other memorabilia.

After a match, with buses crammed full, it's quite pleasant and in keeping with the evening to walk back from the SCG to the city through the steep backstreets of Surry Hills. It's a time-honoured path, with plenty of appropriate pubs along the way like The Bat and Ball, The Cricketers' Arms and The Forresters.

Centennial Parklands
The SCG sits near the sweeping belt of the Centennial Parklands, a green swathe of ovals set across Sydney's south-eastern suburbs. This is where to see the whimsical world of Australian amateur cricket with an extensive set of pitches (including turf wickets) and, on the weekend, countless games in progress. These range from terse shires matches, with players all in whites, to motley affairs where an amiable visitor may talk themselves into a side.

The grand Centennial Park offers facilities to hire a bike or even a horse to navigate its gardens, ornamental ponds and magnificent vegetation.

Aside from the opportunity to watch cricket, it makes a grand spot for a picnic or a nap underneath a shaded tree. The adjacent Moore Park (just across from the SCG) and Queens Park (over from Centennial Park in Waverley) are less scenic but abound with cricket pitches and assorted games. There is a café and kiosk overlooking the cricket fields; try the time-honoured Australian fare of a meat pie with tomato sauce.

North Sydney Oval
The most charming of Sydney's suburban cricket grounds, North Sydney Oval lies over the harbour bridge from the CBD within the affluent Lower North Shore. It's a picture of gentility with green tin-roofed pavilions, red wooden benches, a boundary picket fence and enticing grass banks. The Moreton Bay fig trees and palms in the neighbouring St Leonard's Park enhance the ground's topical allure.

North Sydney Oval's small boundary and sound wicket make for fast, exciting cricket. Through the day's game rings the merry din of clubbed sixes battering the canopies. For the visitor desiring a relaxed day watching good cricket, an afternoon at the ground is well-spent. A laze on the hill, trip to the barbeque, and a saunter about the oval (with a gander at its varied citizenry - Do they seem strange? But of course! See @thegradecricketer) is a happy expedition into Sydney grade cricket.

Predominantly a business district, North Sydney is dull, but the adjoining neighbourhood of Crows Nest abounds with restaurants and bars.

Manly Oval
The coastal neighbourhood of Manly is a majestic outing from Sydney. The voyage on the Manly Ferry alone is extraordinary, leaving from the city's Circular Quay on a dazzling route past the Harbour Bridge and Opera House through the breadth of Port Jackson to Manly Peninsula. Here, just up from the wharf, sits Manly Oval, an elegant cricket ground bordered by pines and braced by the sea air. It is a proud and historic club (which has numbered Keith Miller among its players), there's always a good game on the weekend, and a great spot to drop by for a cool fizzy drink or beer.

What makes this chance to watch cricket in beautiful surrounds unique is the natural wonder of the surrounding area. A short walk from the oval lies Manly Beach, a long and golden stretch of sand that sinks into the Pacific. On a summer's day, it is a fine sight with sunbathers, paddlers, surfers, and a horizon of endless ocean. At the southern stretch is Shelley Beach, a sheltered cove famous for snorkelling. Milling about the waters are Wobbegong sharks (no threat to humans), otherworldly blue gropers, and teeming schools of various fish. Above the beach is a craggy headland which can be ascended for staggering views across the harbour and across to the sheer cliffs that mark its southern entrance. If fortunate enough to combine this with a couple of hours watching play at the cricket ground, this might prove the abiding memory of an Australian trip.

Within Manly there is a profusion of bars, cafés and restaurants throughout the central mall and by the waterfront. Manly's pubs were once rough drinking dens - with the Hotel Steyne along the waterfront particularly infamous - but are now presentably redeveloped (and sterile). Fish and chips along with an ice cream from the beachside boardwalk, is the perennial favourite.