The Rose Bowl: Another feather in the cap

Thursday June the 16th will see another feather added in the cap of Hampshire Cricket club as its premier ground “The Rose Bowl” is all set to host its first ever test match when England takes on Sri Lanka in the 3^rd & final test of the ongoing Npower Test Series.

Located at the West End of Southampton, the Rose Bowl is home to Hampshire county. By the late 80’s & early 90’s cricket in Hampshire took a backseat as major counties like Yorkshire, Surrey, Lancashire to name a few, ruled the roost in county circuit drawing bunch of international players. The traditional Hampshire ground had poor drainage system and was quickly being decapitated. Thereby Hampshire club decided to build new ground with state of the art equipment just outside of Southampton which would also aid in drawing more cricketing fraternity.

Construction began in early 1998 & was completed by the time 2002 county championship came up. Coincidentally that same year the Indian team was on a tour of England. Seizing the opportunity, the then Sky Sports Commentator Mark Nicholas hosted a cricket talk show with maestro Sachin Tendulkar at the Rose Bowl ground itself watched by plenty. The funds thus collected were used in raising the amenities & infrastructure.

Designed by famous architect Michael Hopkins, the striking feature of the stadium is its amphitheatre like topology giving it a bowl like resemblance and also a three storied pavilion with a canopy shape roof.

Hampshire played its first domestic match on the ground in 2002 against Worcestshire, winning it by 124 runs.Subsequently in 2003, Rose Bowl hosted its first ODI played b/w Zimbabwe & South Africa with latter winning by 7 wickets. The breaking moment though came when ECB picked Rose Bowl as one of the venues for ICC Champions Trophy of 2004 where it hosted 5 matches. Taking a leaf out of MCC’s book, Hampshire Cricket Club then increased the capacity of Rose Bowl from 10000 to 25000.

Having hosted a couple of 50 over ODI’s, it was now time for the shortest version of the game, the T20 to make its way at Rose Bowl in 2005 when England locked horns with mighty Australians. The match ended in memorable victory for England as they gunned down the Aussies by 100 runs which till date is their biggest win in T20. The Rose Bowl also hosted the 2008 T20 final in which Middlesex went past Kent by 3 runs. There have been many mouth-watering clashes at Rose Bowl but topping the charts is the 2010 Friends Provident T20 final, a riveting encounter in which Hampshire defeated Somerset, hitting winning runs off the very last ball of the game. In the process Hampshire became the first home team to win the tournament.

Finally in 2006, the ECB awarded test status to Rose Bowl on the basis of start of the art facilities & healthy infrastructure which this newly built ground offers. In 2010 it was selected to host 3^rd test match of ongoing series b/w England & Srilanka. Speculations are that it can also host an Ashes test when Australians tour England in 2013.

GROUND STATISTICS

The Rose Bowl has hosted 12 ODI’s & 2 T20’s till date. England’s Ian bell has highest individual score of 126 which he made against India in 2007. In T20?s Marcus Trescothick leads the way with 324 runs altogether.

As far as bowling is concerned Stuart Broad has been the most prolific bowler at this ground with a tally of 10 wickets. West Indies’ Mervyn Dillon’s 5 for 26 is the best bowling figure.

Come June 16 when England and Sri :anka take center stage, it would be a perfect icing on the cake for cricket lovers of Hampshire as the Rose Bowl joins the elite list of Test venues in England.