Aigburth Cricket Ground overlooked as Ashes 2023 venue

Murmurs of mild disappointment swept across South Liverpool this week when it was announced by the England Cricket Board that Aigburth Cricket Ground will once again be overlooked as a potential Ashes Test venue in 2023.

Built in 1881, and home of Liverpool Cricket Club, Aigburth Cricket Ground has once again been snubbed by the ECB in favour of the “Big Five” of cricket grounds – Edgbaston, Headingley, The Oval, Lord’s and Old Trafford, who will also host the Ashes Tests in 2019.

Members at the Liverpool ground, which in 1984 famously hosted the West Indies thrashing of Lancashire (297/6 in 55 overs), have raised the possibility of regional bias at the ECB, considering the repeated inclusion of Manchester’s Old Trafford as a venue in Test cricket.

Anderson Greythorpe, of the LCC’s members committee, told the Mersey Gazette “I don’t know why we get overlooked, we must be one of the only cricket venues that still have stocks of Watney’s Red Barrel. And then there’s the aroma of 137 years worth of linseed oil. You don’t get that kind of authenticity at Old Trafford, it’s all fancy lagers and potpourri”

Mr Greythorpe wanted to add that the Member’s Lounge has live music every Friday with free snacks.