I don’t know what it is about cricket grounds, but you get a
certain feeling at a great venue. It could be history, knowing that you are
following in the footsteps of great players. Having played at Queens Park,
Chesterfield, you realise how much of a privilege knowing that the likes of WG
Grace, Don Bradman and Dominic Cork have all played there.
It may be how each stand has been built separately and over
different periods of times, whereas with other sporting stadia like football
grounds, there is a more uniform approach. Knowing that Brammall Lane used to
host test cricket always intrigued me, and I wish I could have seen it in
action as a cricket ground.
The closest you get these days to a cricket match being
played in a football ground is at Burnley, where the grounds are next to each
other.
At Headingley, I have made a mistake on more than one occasion
of nearly walking into the rugby ground. I’m not sure if that is possible these
days, though, with the new stand at that end of the ground.
I like to wander around a new venue or an old one, for that
matter. To see the crowds fill in, find a second-hand book table or just get a
feel for the place. They are places where I feel at home. However, I have had
the pleasure of calling them the office on occasion. Which again, I know how grateful
I am.
I cannot wait until I can enter a ground with fans in. They
make sporting events so interesting, as there are genuine characters amongst them; in particular, cricket loses something when there is no one to see it—the gentle hum of background chatter or the smarting of applause for a moment of brilliance.
Hopefully, that won’t be too far away.
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