Eastern Oval (formerly known as the Ballarat Cricket Ground) is a

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

and

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

ground in the city of

Ballarat Ballarat ( ) () is a city in the Central Highlands of Victoria, Australia. At the 2021 census, Ballarat had a population of 111,973, making it the third-largest urban inland city in Australia and the third-largest city in Victoria. Within mo ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. The first recorded match on the ground in 1862 when Ballarat played HH Stephenson's XI. The ground was an important early centre of cricket in Victoria, hosting the Australia team, as well as personal teams from important cricketing figures such as George Parr,

W. G. Grace William Gilbert Grace (18 July 1848 – 23 October 1915) was an English cricketer who is widely considered one of the sport's all-time greatest players. Always known by his initials as "WG", his first-class career spanned a record-equalling 4 ...

and

John Lillywhite John Lillywhite (10 November 1826 – 27 October 1874) was an English cricketer and umpire during the game's roundarm era. John Lillywhite was part of a famous cricketing family, with his father, William Lillywhite, brother, Fred Lillywhit ...

to name a few. The oval is characterised by its steep grassy embankments, historic timber grandstand, and large trees that surround the playing field. It remains popular as a sports venue in Ballarat because of its intimacy, closeness to the city centre, and historic character.

Cricket

More than a hundred years later the ground held its first First-Class match when

played an England XI in a List A match in 1985. The only first-class match to be held there to date was played in 1990 when Victoria played an England XI. The ground was selected as a venue for the

1992 Cricket World Cup The 1992 Cricket World Cup (known as the Benson & Hedges World Cup 1992 for sponsorship reasons) was the fifth Cricket World Cup, the premier One Day International cricket tournament for men's national teams, organised by the International Cric ...

, staging a

One Day International One Day International (ODI) is a format of cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of fifty overs, with the game lasting up to 7 hours. The World Cup, generally held every four yea ...

between

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

and

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

. This match resulted in an England win by 106 runs. Two further List A matches have been held there, one in the 2003/04 ING Cup between Victoria and

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

and another between the same teams in the following season's competition. The Oval will host 4 Games as part of the 2021-22 Women's Big Bash League season, Including a Melbourne Derby between the

Melbourne Renegades Melbourne Renegades are an Australian professional men's Twenty20 franchise cricket club based in Melbourne, the capital city of the Australian state of Victoria (Australia), Victoria. They compete in the Australian Twenty20 cricket competit ...

and the

Melbourne Stars Melbourne Stars are an Australian Twenty20 franchise cricket team, based in Melbourne, Victoria that competes in Australia's Twenty20 competition, the Big Bash League. The Stars wear a green uniform and play their home matches at the Melbou ...

Modern Development

In February 2015 the Ballarat City Council released its Master Plan for the 10 year development of the oval projected to cost $4.2 million (AUD). In 2016 $1 million of works had been completed including a new netball court with lighting, synthetic bowling green and synthetic cricket training facility. In February 2017, Cricket Victoria and the Ballarat City Council announced that the ground will receive a further $2 million (AUD) upgrade to develop it as one of eight State cricketing hubs. This project includes the upgrade of oval lighting to Cricket Australia's class two standard (300 lux to outfield and 500 lux to centre wicket), development of new turf wicket training facilities and redevelopment of the existing change facilities to make them female friendly.

Australian Rules Football

The venue was home to the East Ballarat Football Club before the Club merged with Golden Point FC in 2001 to form the

East Point Football Club The East Point Football Netball Club is an Australian rules football and netball club. The football squad competes in the Ballarat Football League. The club, originally named "East Point Kangaroos" was formed in 2001 when historical clubs East ...

, which now uses the oval as its home. The ground is currently used to host most Ballarat Football and Netball League finals games. The oval was also periodically used by the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the pre-eminent professional sports, professional competition of Australian rules football. It was originally named the Victorian Football League (VFL) and was founded in 1896 as a breakaway competition ...

for pre-season games until 2017, when the

Western Bulldogs The Western Bulldogs are a professional Australian rules football club based in the Melbourne suburb of Footscray. The club competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier competition. Originally named the Footscray F ...

committed to playing two to three games each season at

Eureka Stadium Eureka Stadium, known commercially as Mars Stadium, is an oval-shaped sports stadium located in the Eureka Sports Precinct of Wendouree, Victoria, Wendouree, north of the CBD of the city of Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. History The first perm ...

References

External links

Eastern Oval
at

ESPNcricinfo ESPNcricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including liveblogs and scorecards), and ''StatsGuru'', a ...

Eastern Oval
at CricketArchive {{coord, 37, 33, 27.88, S, 143, 51, 48.75, E, type:landmark_scale:2000_region:NL, display=title Cricket grounds in Victoria (state) Australian rules football grounds Buildings and structures in Ballarat Sports venues completed in 1862 1862 establishments in Australia Melbourne Renegades (WBBL)