page_title: Edgbaston Cricket Ground
section_title: Early history
hierarchical_section_title: Edgbaston Cricket Ground / History / Early history
caption_attribution_description: English: The Pavilion and East Stand at Edgbaston Cricket Ground in 1895.
context_page_description: Edgbaston Cricket Ground, also known as the County Ground or Edgbaston Stadium, is a cricket ground in the Edgbaston area of Birmingham, England. It is home to Warwickshire County Cricket Club and its T20 team Birmingham Bears. Edgbaston has also been the venue for Test matches, One-Day Internationals and Twenty20 Internationals. Edgbaston has hosted the T20 Finals Day more than any other cricket ground. Edgbaston is the main home ground for the Birmingham Phoenix men's team in The Hundred competition from 2020.
  Edgbaston was the first English ground outside Lord's to host a major international one-day tournament final when it hosted the ICC Champions Trophy final in 2013. With permanent seating for approximately 25,000 spectators, it is the fourth-largest cricketing venue in England, after Lord's, Old Trafford and The Oval.
  Edgbaston was the venue of the first senior game under floodlights in English cricket in July 1997 between Warwickshire and Somerset in the then AXA Life Sunday League and hosted the first day/night Test match in England in August 2017 when England played the West Indies.
context_section_description: The land that now makes up Edgbaston Cricket Ground was originally owned by the Calthorpe Estate, who have now sold the site onto Wylam Investments (Edgbaston Holdings) on a long lease. Calthorpe Estates had developed the manor of Edgbaston into an exclusive Birmingham suburb over the course of the 19th century, and believed that a cricket ground would be an asset that would add to the genteel image of the area. Warwickshire County Cricket Club had considered Rugby and Leamington Spa for their headquarters, but club secretary William Ansell believed that Birmingham's large population and comprehensive railway connections made it preferable – envisaging first-class status for the county and Test status for the ground.
  The club had initially favoured the Wycliffe Ground on Pershore Road, but were instead offered a 12-acre "meadow of rough grazing land" in an undeveloped area on the banks of the River Rea by the Calthorpe Estate – the less attractive development land having more to gain from association with the cricket ground. With the site only 20 minutes' walk from New Street Station, Warwickshire agreed in 1885 to lease the land for £5 per acre over a 21-year period. A further £1,250 was spent on draining and enclosing the site and building a wooden pavilion. The new ground's first match took place on 7 June 1886 against the MCC, watched by 3,000 spectators over two days, with 6,000 turning out on 9 and 10 August to watch Warwickshire play Australia.
  Edgbaston's first Test match was the first in The Ashes series against Australia in 1902, for which the club erected a permanent stand, two temporary stands and facilities for 90 members of the press. These developments cost a total of £1,500, however, and Warwickshire's share of the tour funds was only £750.
caption: The Pavilion and East Stand in 1895
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