Adelaide Oval, a lovely cricket ground that has created legends

Adelaide: Australia is a country in the Southern Hemisphere with great sporting. ethos. As one travels across the country he/she would find the legends of the sport, in particular cricket, celebrated in the hall of fame walls, statues erected at the entrance of the cricket stadiums and in many other forms. South Australia is a province known for cricket and wine and one was not surprised to see the statue of Clem Hill outside the South Gate of the Adelaide Oval.

Hill, a left hander played 49 Tests, scored 3412 runs with seven centuries and 19 half centuries between 1896 and 1912. He played 41 Tests against England and 8 against South Africa.

As one walks past the South Gate entry point, you could walk into the Bradman Collection ( Museum).Some 400 visitors visit the museum in a week and around 700 when there are events at the Southern Australia Cricket Association. Entry to the museum when there are no events costs a visitor around Australia $ 25.

Bradman is the most famous name in cricket and his life story is depicted in a fitting manner in the museum. There are a number of black and white pictures, mostly original.A film shows Bradman practising with a single stump and trying to hit the table tennis ball.

The SACA venue is called the Adelaide oval and India’s batsmen have scored 14 centuries, including three by Virat Kohli; head coach Rahul Dravid has scored one of the five double centuries here. Other Indian batsmen who have good nemories of this venue are Virender Sehwag, VVS Laxman, Cheteshwar Pujara, Sachin Tendulkar, Sunil Gavaskar, Vijay Hazare( century in each innings in January 1948), Sandeep Patil, Dattu Phadkar and Mohd. Azhzruddin.

Patil became famous because of his courageous knock of 174 in 1981 after being hit by fast bowler Len Pascoe. That’s the reason Patil earned the nickname “Adelaide Hero”.

On Wednesday the Adelaide Oval will play host to the first two matches of the ICC Men’s Twenty20 World Cup: Netherlands v Zimbabwe and India v Bangladesh. It will host five more matches including a semi- final. A most beautiful ground in the world, the Adelaide Oval is a venue every cricketer loves to play and score runs too!