Just before the start of 2005 Ashes, Australia had to play a test series against New Zealand. With each wicket that Glenn McGrath took, he was approaching closer to 500 test wickets. McGrath was in a good form and took 7 wickets in the last match of the test series at Auckland. During the game, Ricky Ponting, on a funnier note, mentioned “It looks like he doesn’t need those wickets guys. He doesn’t even look happy.” Guess what? McGrath wanted to claim his 500^th wicket during the Ashes as the 1^st test of the series was scheduled at Lord’s. It couldn’t have been scripted better as McGrath dismissed Andrew Strauss to take his 500^th scalp at the home of cricket. As if that wasn’t enough, he also claimed a 5-wicket haul, reducing England to 21-5.

During the start of this year’s Ashes series, a reporter asked Tim Paine on whether Edgbaston was the most intimidating ground he has ever seen? To which the Australian skipper replied “This ground? I can name you 15”. On the eve of the 2^nd test at Lord’s, he was asked a similar question related to the stadium’s atmosphere. However, Tim Paine mentioned that Lord’s is a special place to come and play cricket. Whether you are an English or an Australian, you enjoy coming to this ground. This was the same ground where Paine made his test debut 10 years ago. An Australian having an affinity towards an English stadium is perhaps the last thing you would hear, given the historical cricketing rivalry between the 2 sides. Such was the emotional impact that Lord’s created for visiting players.

Like Tim Paine mentioned, every person from the cricket fraternity loves to visit Lord’s – the oldest and most famous cricket stadium in the world. The excitement was no different for a fan like me, who hails from a country where cricket is considered as a religion. Lord’s cricket ground is situated in London and is the home ground for England and Middlesex county. Currently, the ground is owned by the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). Right from the traditional test matches to the World cup final tie, this ground has seen it all.

While I have never watched a cricket match at Lord’s, I and one of my friends got an opportunity to visit the stadium through the “Lord’s Tour Program”. We came to England to watch a few Cricket World Cup matches but couldn’t get a ticket for the league matches scheduled at Lord’s. Instead, we planned to visit the stadium through this tour program. To say, we enjoyed the tour is an understatement.

It was a typical Friday evening when we got down at St. Johns Woods Station and took a stroll to the ground. Thanks to the weather, there was no chance of rain that day. Unlike a match, the stadium tours don’t get delayed/canceled due to rain. However, a cricket ground with rains and covers is the last thing we wanted to see. We reached the stadium half an hour before the scheduled time and waited outside the Grace entrance. Unfortunately, a few members were waiting outside the stadium with hopes of getting a ticket to the tour, which was completely booked. We booked the tour 6 months before the scheduled date since it was World Cup time and the tour slots were limited during that month.

Firstly, we had a warm welcome from the stadium officials. Their reception felt like as if they were waiting for us. Before the other members could arrive, we had a chance to glance through the MCC museum. We were free to roam around the museum rather than being seated in a waiting room. We had a chance to play the foosball like cricket table and a book cricket in the form of a dartboard. The museum had a few cricket kits used by legends such as ViV Richards, Don Bradman, Sachin Tendulkar, Adam Gilchrist, and many others. The entrance of the museum also shelved the Women’s World Cup that was recently won by England in 2017 with a jersey of captain Heather Knight. The ambiance could lure any fan of this sport. Soon we had close to 30 members – people across different nations. Most of the members were from India and Australia, a few people from Sri Lanka and one of them from Canada as well. We also had a local guy, whose grandfather was involved in the interior renovations of the Lord’s museum.

The tour started at the Museum, where our guide discussed the trophies that were kept. One that immediately caught my eye was the Prudential World Cup that India won back in 1983. An underdog Indian side led by Kapil Dev defended a total of 183 against the mighty West Indies. Indian fans from the 80s era can remember a smiling Kapil Dev lifting the trophy from Lord’s balcony. A replica of the trophy can be found in the BCCI office in Mumbai.

Next to the Prudential trophy was the Ashes urn, which was kept at the center of the cabinet. Ashes is a famous test series played between England and Australia. The history of the Ashes goes back to 1882 when favorites England lost a test match against Australia by 7 runs at Oval. After the defeat, a journalist had written a funny obituary stating that English Cricket is dead and that the body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia. Later, England had to tour Australia under the leadership of Ivo Bligh. England would go on to win the series and Bligh was awarded a small urn, which is believed to contain the ashes of burnt bails. The urn was presented to Bligh by a group of women from Melbourne. Apparently, Bligh fell in love with one of the women named Florence Murphy. Bligh had previously met with Florence at a social gathering for Christmas eve before the test series. After winning the series and regaining the “The Ashes”, Bligh married Florence and they kept the urn with them for a long time as a special token. However, after Bligh’s death, the urn was returned back to MCC and kept at the museum as stated in his will. From then on, it was always a matter of who regains the Ashes. The urn kept at the museum is the original one and the players always lift the replica of the urn whenever they win the series. Basically, “Ashes” started as a mockery from an English journalist, that turned into a love story between an England cricketer and an Australian Woman and is now played as one of the major test series.

After going through the trophies, we were taken to the famous long room – the place through which batsmen walk towards the ground and to the pavilion. Just outside the long room is where the MCC members are seated during a match. One can witness the MCC members giving a standing ovation if a player, irrespective of his nation, scores a hundred and walks back to the pavilion. The long room is the first instance of the tour when we were able to get a full view of the ground.

Straight from the long room, we were taken to the Home and Visitors’ dressing room. The dressing rooms have their respective honors board. If a player scores a century or if a bowler picks a 5-wicket haul in a test match at Lord’s, the player’s name and the corresponding scores/spell along with the year are updated in it. According to recent stats, Sachin (51) has the highest number of centuries in tests followed by Kallis (45) and Ponting (41). Similarly, Murali leads the leading wicket-takers’ list with 800 scalps, followed by Warne (708) and Kumble (623). Interestingly, the names of the above-mentioned players will be absent from the honors board. However, Murali has a 5-wicket haul in ODIs at Lord’s and his name can be seen in the ODI honors list that is maintained separately.

From the dressing rooms, we went to the balconies to get another view of the ground from the pavilion. But before going to the balcony, we had goosebumps when our guide advised the Indian fans, on a funnier note, to keep our shirts on. Thanks to Sourav Ganguly and the memories of NatWest 2002 finals. 17 years had passed, and it was chilling to stand at the same place where Ganguly took his shirt off to celebrate the victory.

From the dressing room, we went out of the stadium Pavilion Stand and walked towards the Grand Stand to get a side view of the ground. During our walk, we witnessed the statue of WG Grace, former English batsman who is also addressed as Father of Cricket. The statue is placed near the Grace entrance (through which we entered the stadium). From the Grand Stand, we could get a clear picture of the stadium and the two ends. Lord’s has a unique geographical gradient in that the height of the ground at both ends varies leading to a slope, which the bowlers use as an advantage to get uneven bounce and seam movement. The slope was more evident from the Grand Stand. From there, we clearly enjoyed the view of the grassy surface, an empty stadium and the curators preparing the pitch for upcoming league games. For a brief moment, it felt as if the entire stadium belonged to us.

Our next stop was the famous media center opposite the pavilion, giving us a bird’s eye view of the ground. The media center was constructed just before the 1999 world cup to accommodate more journalists and broadcasters. We just happened to finish the 20-year anniversary of it. The media center has enough room with plug points at each seat of the tables for the journalists to plug in their electronic gadgets. We were surprised to hear that none of the batsmen had hit a six at the media center – not even Chris Gayle. From the box, we were able to see around 20 pitches. The middle ones are used for international games. As we move farther from the center, we can see the pitches used for County games and the ones used for practice purpose. A few pitches are also used for conducting university level competitions.

Finally, our tour ended at the Lord’s souvenir store, which is just outside the stadium. The store had many jerseys and cricket equipment. The entire tour was an interactive session, with both the guide and the audience sharing some facts and stories. The session was scheduled for 1.5 hours but it lasted for 2 hours and we had no idea how time went by. The tour was certainly worth the time and money and I would cherish the Lord’s memories forever!

AUTHOR

Ganesh is an engineering graduate from College of Engineering Guindy, Anna University, Chennai. He is currently working as a Data Analyst at LatentView, Chennai. He is a big fan of Cricket and maintains his personal blog High on Cricket to share his opinions about the game. He has also written a few articles for SportsKeeda – one of India’s leading sports website. He loves traveling and going on road trips.