Edgbaston Stadium Chief Executive Neil Snowball has praised the passion shown from more than 75,000 cricket fans who flocked to the legendary venue
Edgbaston Stadium Chief Executive Neil Snowball has praised the passion shown from more than 75,000 cricket fans who flocked to the legendary venue over the last four days to see England record a thrilling 31-run victory over India.
England celebrated their 1,000 men’s Test match at Edgbaston this week, but also continued an incredible run of nine consecutive victories in all forms of the game in Birmingham.
We’ve lobbied hard to host the opening Test of the major summer series, to ensure that Joe Root’s men have the best possible opportunity to get off to a great start. That has happened at Edgbaston today.
Neil Snowball
“Once again, Edgbaston has proven to be a ‘fortress’ for the England team,” said Snowball.
“The team love coming to Birmingham and the fans give them a reception like nowhere else in the country.
“We’ve lobbied hard to host the opening Test of the major summer series, to ensure that Joe Root’s men have the best possible opportunity to get off to a great start. That has happened at Edgbaston today and hopefully the same can happen again next year when we host the opening Test of the Specsavers Ashes series.”
In total, Edgbaston, which is the biggest cricket venue outside of London, accommodated 75,716 spectators across the four days of play and welcomed a capacity crowd of 23,797 on Friday, which featured large gatherings from England’s famous Barmy Army and India’s Bharat Army supporter groups.
“Whenever we come here to Edgbaston the support is always phenomenal,” said England captain Joe Root. “There were pockets of play when you thought there could have been 60,000 people in.
“You ask any player whenever you play in that atmosphere, it makes it that little bit more special. It’s obviously a venue where we’ve had success in the recent past and thankfully we managed to continue that this week.”
In response to the early finish on Saturday, Edgbaston also made a substantial donation to Birmingham charity, Let’s Feed Brum, which collected a range of freshly prepared food from the stadium following the game.
Edgbaston’s next major match cricket is Vitality Blast Finals Day on Saturday 15 September, with all tickets sold out, with exception of the allocations reserved for Members and supporters of the four competing teams. However, tickets remain available for Birmingham Bears three remaining Vitality Blast group games at www.birminghambears.com.
Test cricket returns to Edgbaston on Thursday 1 August 2019 when it hosts the opening Test of the Specsavers Ashes series against Australia.
