Centurion Park is a

cricket ground Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by stri ...

Centurion, Gauteng Centurion (previously known as Verwoerdburg and before that Lyttelton) is an area with 236,580 inhabitants (2011 census) in the Gauteng Province of South Africa, between Pretoria and Midrand (Johannesburg). Formerly an independent municipality, wi ...

, South Africa. It is also known as SuperSport Park since television company Supersport bought shares in the stadium. The capacity of the ground is 22,000. The

Titans cricket team The Titans (known as the Multiply Titans for sponsorship reasons) are the northernmost top-level cricket franchise in South Africa. Its member unions are the Eastern Cricket Union and Northerns Cricket Union. The home venues of the Titans are ...

have played most of their home games here since 2004. The ground was home to the Titans' predecessor team Northerns (previously ''Northern Transvaal'') since 1986.

Name

The town of ''Verwoerdburg'' was renamed ''Centurion'' at the end of

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid wa ...

, with the politically neutral new name of the town coming from that of the cricket ground.

Notable fixtures

Test matches

The first Test match at Centurion was held in November 1995, as the opening match of the first post-apartheid tour of South Africa by the England cricket team; however, the match was drawn after being severely affected by rain. Centurion was the venue for the notorious fifth Test match of the next England tour in 2000, when (after three days' play were lost to rain) South African captain

Hansie Cronje Wessel Johannes "Hansie" Cronje (25 September 1969 – 1 June 2002) was a South African international cricketer and captain of the South African national cricket team in the 1990s. A right-handed all-rounder, as captain Cronje led his team to vi ...

forfeited his team's second innings to allow for a result on the final day of the match, which England won. It was later revealed that Cronje had done so after being approached by a bookmaker and offered money to stop the match ending in a draw. Further controversy occurred in 2001, when the scheduled third Test between South Africa and India at Centurion was declared to be an "unofficial" Test after the

Board of Control for Cricket in India The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is the national governing body for cricket in India. Its headquarters are situated at Cricket centre, Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. The BCCI is the richest governing body of cricket in the worl ...

refused to accept the

International Cricket Council The International Cricket Council (ICC) is the world governing body of cricket. Headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, its members are 108 national associations, with 12 Full Members and 96 Associate Members. Founded in 1909 as the '' ...

's match referee, Mike Denness, who had disciplined several Indian players in the previous match at Port Elizabeth. In December 2010, India batsman

Sachin Tendulkar Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar (; ; born 24 April 1973) is an Indian former international cricketer who captained the Indian national team. He is regarded as one of the greatest batsmen in the history of cricket. He is the all time highest run-sco ...

scored his 50th Test century at Centurion in the first Test of the 2010–11 Indian tour of South Africa. From the summer of 2018/19, the ground usually hosts a Boxing Day Test.

One-Day Internationals

Centurion was a venue for the

2003 Cricket World Cup The 2003 ICC Cricket World Cup was the eighth Cricket World Cup, organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). It was co-hosted by South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya from 9 February to 23 March 2003. This edition of the World Cup was the f ...

which took place in South Africa. It was also selected as a venue for the 2009 ICC Champions Trophy and hosted the final on 5 October 2009.

Other cricket competitions

The 2009 Indian Premier League was held in South Africa, and Centurion was one of eight grounds used. It hosted twelve matches, including one of the semi-finals. Supersport Park also hosted a domestic and continental Sixes tournament, where home side, the Titans, came out on top in the domestic competition, and

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring coun ...

winning the continental competition against

Kenya ) , national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

in the final.

Other sports

Centurion hosted an

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 oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

practice match in 2008 between Carlton and

Fremantle Fremantle () () is a port city in Western Australia, located at the mouth of the Swan River in the metropolitan area of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth. The Western Australian vernacular diminutive for ...

Music

On 17 September 2011, Irish vocal pop band

Westlife Westlife is an Irish pop vocal group formed in Dublin, Ireland in 1998. The group currently consists of members Shane Filan, Mark Feehily, Kian Egan, and Nicky Byrne. Brian McFadden was a member, until he left in 2004. The group temporar ...

held a concert for

Gravity Tour The Gravity Tour is the eleventh concert tour by Irish boy band, Westlife. The tour supported their eleventh studio album, ''Gravity''. The tour visits Europe, Asia and Africa. The tour was listed 55th in 2011 Worldwide First Quarter ticket sa ...

supporting their album

Gravity In physics, gravity () is a fundamental interaction which causes mutual attraction between all things with mass or energy. Gravity is, by far, the weakest of the four fundamental interactions, approximately 1038 times weaker than the stro ...

Records

Cricket records

Test records

* Highest Test Total: 621 –

vs.

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

, 26 December 2020 * Highest Individual Test Score: 208 – Hashim Amla,

vs.

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...

, 17 December 2014 * Best Test Innings Bowling Figures: 7/29 – Kyle Abbott,

vs.

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

, 22 February 2013 * Best Test Match Bowling Figures: 13/144 – Kagiso Rabada,

vs.

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

, 22 January 2016

References

External links

*{{cricinfo, ref=southafrica/content/ground/59079.html, check-wikidata=no Cricket grounds in South Africa Australian rules football grounds 2003 Cricket World Cup stadiums Sports venues in Pretoria Test cricket grounds in South Africa