Is Eden Park really that small?
Strang
EBen
den Park may be small, but on a global scale it’s certainly not as tiny as some would have you believe.
Australia’s world record Twenty20 chase of 244, which they reached with seven balls to spare on Friday night, has had many questioning whether Eden Park is right for cricket.
Of course, it’s not like the ground changes size for the team batting second, so there are no complaints about fairness.
The complaint is that it’s too small and allows for inflated scores. It begs the question, just how small is Eden Park?
What we’re really talking about when we think of Eden Park’s small boundaries is the one straight, which on match day is as short as 55 metres.
Using Google maps, we completed a very basic distance test at several major cricketing venues around the world to compare Eden Park’s boundaries.
Without taking into account how far the boundary is brought in at grounds, Eden Park is still clearly the shortest straight. From one end of the wicket to the straight fence, it is roughly 65m.
Eden Gardens in India was the next shortest of the grounds we tested, at 76m straight. Kensington Oval in Barbados was a metre longer.
By comparison, the Melbourne Cricket Ground is about 83m down the ground, Lord’s is about 89m straight, and the Sydney Cricket Ground a whopping 94m. On match day, the rope is often brought in by about 10 metres, so where Eden Park can be bordering on ridiculous straight, Eden Gardens and Kensington Oval aren’t much better.
The square boundaries are a different story. Eden Park’s square boundaries sit at about
69m from the middle of the block (or drop in pitch), larger than Eden Gardens (66m), Lord’s (65m) and The Wanderers in South Africa (64m).
The MCG has square boundaries of 86m to the fence, nine metres longer than those at Hagley Oval in Christchurch which sits at 77m to the base of the banks.
Ground shape also comes into things when we consider how big a ground is.
While Lord’s is long straight and short square, the fact the shape of the ground is almost a square means the midwicket or cover boundaries are huge.
Lord’s, then, would have the longest rope of major grounds at
523m around the base of the fence, making the playing surface roughly 21,822 square metres.
The MCG, SCG and the SSC in Colombo, Sri Lanka, all hover around the 19,100sq/m mark.
With Eden Park’s odd shape, it finishes above Eden Gardens
(14,200sq/m) and Kensington Oval
(14,750sq/m) in playing area, at about 15,700sq/m.
It’s fortunate international matches aren’t played at boutique English club grounds.
Stapleton Cricket Club in Bristol, England, for instance, has a square boundary reaching roughly 37m from the middle of the block, and a boundary rope which runs across the top of a five-foot tall rock fence (if you hit the fence on the full it’s four).
At another ground in Somerset, should you hit a six over the fence and into the neighbouring village, you are out. Take your runs and have an early shower.
Fortunately, you get none of that with Eden Park.