Know your 2019 World Cup venue: The Oval

The first-ever Test on England soil was played at The Oval in September 1880, with W. G. Grace scoring his debut Test ton.

With a capacity of 23,500 – owned by the Duchy of Cornwall, currently held by Charles, Prince of Wales – the Kia Oval also hosted the first FA Cup final in 1872.

The ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 will be held in England and Wales from May 30, 2019 to July 14, 2019.

The first round of the tournament will see 10 teams — England (host), Australia, Bangladesh, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and West Indies — play against each other. The top four teams will progress to the semifinals.

The Oval Cricket Ground in London will host the following matches: (All times in IST)

Kennington Oval

Established in 1845, the Kennington Oval has been witness to many historic cricket as well as football matches. The first-ever Test on England soil was played here in September 1880, with W. G. Grace scoring his debut Test ton in England’s five-wicket victory over Australia.

With a capacity of 23,500 – owned by the Duchy of Cornwall, currently held by Charles, Prince of Wales – the stadium also hosted the first FA Cup final in 1872 and continued as the venue for the main event for the next 20 years. Moreover, the first football international between England and Scotland was played at this venue on March 5, 1870.

Trivia from London

The cast of the West End Beatles musical show "Let it Be" pose for photographers by attempting to recreate the cover photograph of the Beatles album "Abbey Road" on the zebra crossing on Abbey Road in London.

 

– London’s black taxis are a common sight, but to drive one, one must complete a test called ‘The Knowledge’, which involves memorising every single street in England’s capital.

– Karl Marx, Charles Darwin, Sylvia Plath, Charles Dickens, Jimi Hendrix, Wolfgang Mozart, Florence Nightingale, Edgar Allen Poe, Ho Chi Minh, Mahatma Gandhi, Vincent Van Gogh, Sigmund Freud and Voltaire are just a few of the many, many famous people who have lived in London.

– More than 300 languages are spoken in the cultural melting pot that is London.

– The London Underground is the first of its kind in the world, beginning operations between Paddington and Farringdon in 1863, and is the oldest public rapid transit system in the world.

– London has played home to more famous musicians and bands than any other city in the world – from rock giants The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, The Who and Led Zeppelin to metal pioneers Motorhead and Iron Maiden, punk legends The Sex Pistols, Billy Idol, Siouxsie and the Banshees and The Clash, to Elton John, Phil Collins, Cliff Richards, Eurythmics, The Alan Parsons Project, Marianne Faithfull, The Small Faces, Status Quo, Yes and Spandau Ballet, and modern pop’s Spice Girls, Coldplay, Girls Aloud and Leona Lewis, plus alternative artists Florence and the Machine, Elvis Costello, Lily Allen and The Cure.

– The Beatles last played together live as a group to the rooftop of their legendary Abbey Road Studios on Saville Row, in an impromptu performance immortalised on video.

– Only one house where Charles Dickens lived still stands, at 48 Doughty Street, which is now a museum. He lived there between 1837 and 1839, and it’s where he wrote Oliver Twist and The Pickwick Papers.

– The reading room at the British Museum is where Karl Marx wrote Das Kapital. He drafted The Communist Manifesto in a room above the Red Lion pub on Great Windmill Street.

– Joseph Stalin, Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky met at the now-demolished Brotherhood Church on Southgate Road in Hackney for a meeting of the banned Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1907.

– There are more than a dozen rivers flowing beneath London, including the Effra that runs under the Oval cricket ground.