Which Cricket Grounds Hold The Largest Capacity In The UK?
The UK's top 10 cricket grounds by capacity are used by professional clubs within the County set up. These County sides play their regular cricket at their home grounds. The England National team also use these grounds when playing international matches.
The Counties all tender, to host one of more of the international games and these include - T20, 1 Day and full Test matches. Various county sides are guaranteed at least one test match each year. This follows long term agreements signed to ensure the County side fully developed their ground. Whilst this also helped secure the funding to improve the facilities as they were assured to gain large revenues from Internationals. Lords Cricket Ground and The Oval are 2 grounds that have at least 1 Test match each per season. The largest cricket ground in the UK is Lord's, home to the MCC, with a capacity of 30,000.
How Big Is The Biggest Cricket Grounds Compared to Lord's?
Lord's cricket ground has a ground capacity of 30,000 but, with new ground developments this should rise to 31,000 during 2021. Compared to other grounds in the world this can be classed as relatively small. Especially when you consider the top 6 grounds in the world all hold at least twice as many fans. In fact the largest grounds hold over 100,000
- 110,000 - Sardar Patel Stadium - India
- 100,024 - Melbourne Cricket Ground - Australia
- 80,000 - Eden Gardens - India
- 65,000 - Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Cricket Stadium - India
- 60,000 - Perth Stadium - Australia
- 60,000 - Gwalior International Cricket Stadium - India
As England is the home of cricket, it is surprising to find the stadia are so small compared to other countries. The following countries all have stadiums built to hold more fans than Lord's
- India has 21 stadia bigger than Lord's
- Australia have 7 cricket grounds bigger than Lord's
- New Zealand have 2, with Pakistan and Sri Lanka also have 1 each bigger than Lord's.
Which County Cricket Grounds Are The Biggest In The UK By Capacity?
The largest County cricket grounds in the UK are relatively small compared to other grounds around the world. Lord's is currently the biggest in the UK but only ranks 24th in the world. The top 10 cricket grounds in the UK are as follows
It should be noted that some Counties play their County games on smaller 2nd grounds. This allows more fans to watch professional cricket closer to home. As attendances are relatively poor for the longer 4 day matches, this is a great way of engaging with a wider audience.
1 day and T20 cricket are a big crowd pleaser and attract larger crowds. The T20 format is increasingly popular around the world. The IPL and Big Bash sell out most games so the income stream for clubs to invest in ground development is available. The climate suits these competitions in the southern hemisphere too. In the UK the summer period can be quite small and the warm dry period may not co-inside with the T20 tournament. It is hoped The Hundred will bring a new crowd and energy to the English game. Hopefully grounds will sell out allowing further investment.
Previously I looked at the ground capacity of the English Premier League and it is interesting to see how they compare. In fact in the 2019/20 season only 5 clubs had grounds smaller than Lord's
