Kensington Oval is located to the west of the capital city Bridgetown. It will host the ICC Cricket World Cup Super Eight matches on April 11th, 13th, 15th, 17th, 19th and 21st, and the ICC Cricket World Cup Final on Saturday 28th of April 2007.
Originally on the grounds of a plantation house, this pasture was developed to become the home of Pickwick Cricket Club in 1882 and hosted Slade Lucas' first ever England touring side in 1895.
The first combined West Indies side against MCC played here in 1910-11 and then Kensington Oval made it's entry into the history books when it held the first ever test match between the West Indies and England in January 1930, which resulted in a draw.
Since then 43 test matches have been played at the ground with the West Indies winning 21 of these matches.
The ground has developed over the years to become one of the best in the Caribbean region, with its first major overhaul in 1944 when it was destroyed by fire. The Kensington Stand was then rebuilt in stone.
Barbadians are passionate about cricket and can boast numerous cricketing legends such as Gordon Greenidge, Sir Garfield Sobers, Sir Frank Worrell, Everton Weekes and Clyde Walcott.
Further stands were added at Kensington Oval to honour the legendary three W's - Frank Worrell, Everton Weekes, Clyde Walcott. Other stands built were The Carib Beer Stand, The Eric Inniss Stand, The George Challenor, The Hall and Griffith Stand, The Mitchie Hewitt Stand, The Pickwick Stand, the Three Ws Stand and the Peter Short Media Centre. The local lottery then funded the building of the Sir Garfield Sobers Player's Pavilion.
The stadium has now undergone it's biggest ever refurbishment, with government investing $135 million to increase the ground's capacity from 12,500 to 28,000 in order to host ICC World Cup Cricket matches.
This redevelopment has included additional stands, seating, pitch irrigation, floodlights, media & player facilities.
Demolition of the old ground began in June 2005 after it hosted a test match against Pakistan, by July 2005 only three of the original ten stands still remain, those being The Hall & Griffith stand, The Mitchie Hewitt stand, and The Carib Beer Stand.
The Barbados Cabinet, the Barbados Cricket Association, the Barbados Tourism Investment Inc. and the Ministry of Education, Youth Affairs and Sports have all played a part in the renaming of the new stands and the three W's have now had their status elevated at the ground.
What was The Challenor Stand has become the second tallest building in Barbados, and is named The Worrell, Weekes and Walcott Stand. George Challenor has not been forgotten as the third and fourth floors are now known as the Challenor Suites.
The seven new suites within The Hall & Griffith Stand are now named The Emmanuel Martindale Suites.
The former Mitchie Hewitt Stand will now be called the Hewitt and Inniss Stand, while its seven suites will be named after Sir Conrad Hunte.
The Kensington Inniss stand has been renamed The Greenidge and Haynes Stand, with the 16 suites at the top taking the names of Dennis Atkinson and Seymour Nurse.
The Peter Short Media Centre will now be The Coppin, Cozier and Short Media Centre, adding sports journalists Oscar Coppin and Tony Cozier.
Whilst a lot of attention has been paid to the building of the new stands, there has been significant work and investment in technology to ensure the pitch and field related preparations are world class. This puts Kensington Oval on the map as one of the finest Cricket ground in the world.
Using technology employed by professional football grounds across Europe, a new irrigation system will run along the outskirts of the Oval field and will serve as a catchment area for water. There are huge underground tanks to hold the water, which is then recycled and used for watering the pitch. The outfield is now sand-based as opposed to soil as this helps the pitch to drain quicker in the event of rain.
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