Regarded as one of the most popular cricket grounds, the Gabba stands in Brisbane, Australia. The stadium was built in 1895 at the capital city of Queensland and is named after Woolloongabba, the place where it is located. But for the records, its official name if “Brisbane Cricket Ground”.
Records state that the earliest of matches were played in the year of 1895 with the first match played at the ground between The Press and Parliament. Until 1931, Gabba was not used as inter-state or international cricket venues. The stadium has a capacity to audience 42,000 spectators and is operated by the Major Sports Facilities Authority in Australia. Coming from a long way back, The Gabba has hosted Australian rules football, athletics, concerts, rugby league, soccer, rugby union, baseball, pony and greyhound races and many more.
The first test match was played at The Gabba in 1931 between Australia and South Africa on 27th November. The Gabba hosted their first one-day international match between England and West Indies on 23rd December, 1979. Over the years, the ground has hosted 52 cricket matches and has become an iconic landmark of Australia. The home side has won 32 of all the matches played here with a win percentage of 61.54. Only one match played at The Gabba ended up in a tie.
The highest individual score ever attained at the Brisbane Cricket Ground was by Sir Don Bradman in 1931-32 against South Africa when he scored 226 runs. Richard Hadlee has had the most successive bowling spree with 9 wickets for 52 runs in a match against New Zealand in 1985-86. A total of 645 runs were scored by England in 1946-47 which stands a record of the highest ever total attained by any team.
In 1993, the ground was put into renovation and was re-developed in 6 stages at the cost of a whooping AUD $128,000,000. The renewal gave the ground new grandstands, lightings and bleachers along with 2 video scoreboards. The current dimensions of the ground are 149.9 meters north to south and 170.6 meters east to west. The ground resembles the Melbourne Cricket Ground in its appearance. In the recent times, the biggest ever event to be held at the ground was the 2000 Olympic Games in which the ground hosted many Football matches. The one match that saw the highest number of attendees was the quarter-final match between Cameroon and Brazil. The number of spectators had crossed 37,000. Another match that was viewed by 37,460 people at a time was the British & Iris Lions vs. Australia Rugby Union Test match in 2001. A crowd of 39,874 fans flocked the Gabba to attend the second game of a tri-series between South Africa and Australia in January 2006. The Gabba has also been the first ever Australian ground to have hosted the Twenty20 match.