Located in the capital city of Bridgetown on the island of Barbados, the Kengsinton Oval ground is one of the major sports facilities of the island and is generally used for cricket matches. Locals refer to the ground as the “The Mecca” of cricket with the ground having hosted most of the important matches of local, regional and international forms.
History - Foundation
The 120+ years old ground came into being in 1882 with the first international match held in 1895 between Slade Lucas and the West Indies team. The first test match that took place at the ground in 1930 was between England and West Indies, with the test eventually ended in a draw. A total of 43 test matches have been played at “The Oval” since its creation, 21 of which were won by the hometowners. The stadium has been honored through 2 2007 Barbadian postage stamps.
Renovation
At the end of the 2004-05 season, the ground was closed down for restoration. The old stadium was completely demolished and a new one at the cost of USD 135 million was erected in its place. The restorations were carried to prepare it for the 2007 World Cup and the capacity of the new stadium was increased to 28,000 from 12,500. Even though the resurrection process was completely planned, the completion date was missed by almost a week.
Facilities
The former stands at the ground were named George Challenor stand, the Kensington, the Hall and Griffith, the Mitch Hewitt, the Three Ws and the Pickwick along with the Peter Short Media Center. The new stadium has retained most of the names.
The team that took up to the construction of the new outfield was the same team that had previously worked with the Lord’s Cricket Ground. The topsoil consisted of varied amounts of soil mixed in different amounts at different depths over historic coral reef limestone. The new outfield is made up of 175 mm of amended rootzone, 125 mm of unammended rootzone sand, a 50 mm of binding layer with a 100 mm gravel drainage layer. The grass that covers the field is a Tifwat 419 hybrid Bermudagrass which is dense, highly disease resistant and provides quick recovery from injury or mowing by spreading quickly. The ground contains four main pitches made up of 200 mm of clay, more than 150 mm of medium-fine sand and a gravel drainage layer.
Events Hosted
The Kensington ground has been the venue for many of the important events in cricket history with the most important one being the finals of the 2007 Cricket World Cup. It has hosted the first touring side - England in 1895, the first combined West Indies side - against MCC in 1910-11, and also the first test match of the West Indies national cricket team.
Statistics
The First test match was played in the year 1930 and the last one in 2009, both of them ending up in a draw. Out of the total 45 tests played at the ground, the home wins are recorded at 21, making them the most successful team of the venue. The highest score recorded for a test match is 749 runs at the loss of 9 wickets which was scored by the West Indies in 2009 against England. The lowest scores were recorded by India in 1997 test match which, of course, the home side easily won.
The first ODI match played was in 1985 and the last one in 2009. Of the total 28 ODIs played at the ground, West Indies emerged victorious in 10 of them while losing 13. West Indies has been the most successful wins at the ground with 10 wins. The highest score that came off the ground was 313 for 6 that the Sri Lanka team posted in 2003 with the lowest being 91 by Ireland in 2007.