Location Napier, New Zealand Capacity 19,700 Owner Napier City Council | Operator Napier City Council Phone +64 6-834 4145 Establishment 1911 | |
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First Test 16 February 1979:
New Zealand v Pakistan Last Test 26 January 2012:
New Zealand v Zimbabwe First ODI 19 March 1982:
New Zealand v Sri Lanka Last ODI 2 February 2017:
New Zealand v Australia Address Latham St, Napier South, Napier 4110, New Zealand Teams Hawke's Bay Rugby Union, Central Districts cricket team, Hurricanes Tenants Hawke's Bay Rugby Union (Mitre 10 Cup) Similar Hawke's Bay Regional, Napier Municipal Theatre, Napier Garden Motel, Napier City Council, Kennedy Park Resort N | ||
Cricket in mclean park napier new zealand
McLean Park is a sports ground in Napier, New Zealand. The two main sports played at the ground are cricket and rugby union. It is one of the largest cricket grounds in New Zealand.
Contents
- Cricket in mclean park napier new zealand
- Ground
- Usage
- Redevelopments
- Test matches
- One Day Internationals
- Twenty20 Internationals
- References
McLean Park is a sports ground of international standards which includes the main outdoor stadium and the indoor Rodney Green Centennial Events Centre. The home teams for this ground are the Hawke's Bay Rugby Union and Central Districts Cricket Association. The two ends of the stadium are named the Centennial Stand End and Embankment End. Its close proximity to the International Date Line makes it the world's most easterly Test match ground.
Ground
The ground was initially named 'Sir Donald McLean Park' by an act of Parliament after Sir Douglas McLean (also spelt Maclean) donated ten acres of land as a memorial to his father. In cricket, the ground is primarily a one-day venue with square dimensions that allow attacking batsman to score freely especially in the opening overs. There are four covered stands and a large grass bank opposite the Centennial Stand. The wicket tends to slow up throughout the day therefore captains prefer to set targets on this pitch. It has held first class matches since 1952 and ten tests since 1979. New Zealand's Test record at the ground is seven draws, one win and two losses. It has held at least a single one-day international every season since 1990. The ground has a capacity of 19,700 and the pitch is turf. It has been announced they will no longer host one-day internationals after 2017/18 season due to poor drainage.
Usage
The ground is used for hosting both ODIs and Test matches. It has hosted a total of 5 Tests and 40 ODIs. The first ODI played here was between New Zealand and Sri Lanka in Rothman's Cup of 1982/83. In this match New Zealand defeated Sri Lanka by 7 wickets. Apart from this, the McLean Park Complex also hosts rugby matches, including one match at the 1987 Rugby World Cup and another at the 2011 Rugby World Cup. It is the home of the Hawkes Bay rugby team in the ITM Cup. It has also hosted several New Zealand Maori games in the past. Melbourne Storm Rugby League club are planning to stage an NRL game against St. George-Illawarra Dragons at the stadium on 25 July 2015.
Redevelopments
Redevelopment of the park has recently finished and the new Graham Lowe Stand opened on Saturday 1 August 2009 when the Hawke's Bay Magpies opened their Air New Zealand Cup campaign with a win against Auckland. Redevelopments took just one year to complete. The stand was built for the 2011 Rugby World Cup and to a lesser extent the 2015 Cricket World Cup of which both events will have games at the venue.
Test matches
McLean Park is regarded as one of the most batting friendly wickets in the world. The average runs per wickets is 39.45 which is almost eight runs higher than Eden Park which, at 31.46 is the second most batting friendly wicket in New Zealand. No pitch throughout the world which has had more than five test matches has a higher runs per wicket The batting friendly conditions means that it is hard to produce results here and seven on the ten tests played here have been draws with the other two losses to New Zealand which featured characteristic batting collapses.New Zealand won a lone test here against Zimbabwe. Brendan McCullum is the top run scorer on the ground with 411 while Iain O'Brien has the most wickets with 15.
One Day Internationals
McLean Park also has been known as a good batting strip for one day cricket. The average runs per wicket is 30.66 while the average runs per over is 4.90. It has been known as a good ground for New Zealand with 20 of the 33 matches played having been won by the home side while two matches, both against England, were tied. Ricky Ponting has the highest individual score on the ground of 141 not out which came in the highest team score on the ground of 347/5. Stephen Fleming and Nathan Astle share the record for most runs on the ground with 743 while Daniel Vettori with 23 easily has the most wickets. It was selected as a venue for the 2015 Cricket World Cup and hosted 3 matches.
Twenty20 Internationals
The first T20I at the venue was held on 3 January 2017, between New Zealand and Bangladesh. With that, McLean park became the sixth venue in New Zealand to host a T20 international.