The Rose Bowl is awarded its first Test Match

The Rose Bowl wins first Test Match

The Rose Bowl has been awarded its first Test Match and will play host to England vs Sri Lanka in 2011.

The historic decision was made by the ECB’s Major Match Group (MMG) as part of the allocation of major matches for 2009, 2010 and 2011.  As well as the Test in 2011, The Rose Bowl also won a host of other major matches including 4 One Day Internationals and the Twenty20 Finals Day for the second time. The Rose Bowl’s full allocation is as follows:

2009

England vs Australia One Day International

2010

England vs West Indies One Day International
England vs Australia One Day International
Twenty20 Finals Day

2011

England vs Sri Lanka Test Match
England vs India  One Day International

Rose Bowl plc Chairman, Rod Bransgrove commented on the award of matches:

“This is a truly historic day for The Rose Bowl and Hampshire Cricket. Staff, players, members, supporters, commercial partners, in fact anyone with an association with this fantastic ground can feel a huge sense of pride in what has been achieved. This is the culmination of an enormous amount of hard work and dedication and yes, it is the fulfilment of a personal dream. It is important that this is not seen as ‘mission accomplished’ though, as we fully intend to be a permanent fixture on the Test Match calendar from 2011 onwards.”

Rod added, “This allocation of matches was hard fought and demonstrates that with our new £45million development, turning the ground into the first ever Model Test Match ground, we are now one of the major sports and entertainment venues in the country. The allocation perfectly matches our proposed development timescale, due for completion in the summer of 2010 and fully tested, well before our historic first Test Match in 2011.”
 

Read more about The Rose Bowl's New Development and view a fly through video of the ground in 2011

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