Kensington Oval

Formerly known as the Pickwick Cricket Club, the Kensington Oval is a stadium situated in the west of the city Bridgetown which is the capital city of the island of Barbados. It has been existent since the last 130 years although the first Test match played here was between West Indies and England in January 1930. After its reconstruction for the 2007 50 over World Cup, its seating Capacity has been increased to 28,000. The names of the previous stands which made up the Kensington stadium were the George Challenor stand, the Hall and Griffith, the Kensington, the Mitchie Hewitt, the Pickwick, and the Three Ws stand plus the Peter Short Media Centre.

Alongside the WACA, the Kensington Oval was once upon a time said to have one of the fastest pitches in world cricket, so much so that it used to create shivers amongst many opposition batsmen when they came out to bat. Half the battle was already won by the West Indies, which is why they used to win an innumerable amount of Test matches at this venue, especially when they were at their prime, in the 70s and 80s under Clive Lloyd. Not to mention, Barbados has been the home ground for several champion West Indies cricketers such as Sir Garfield Sobers, who is one of the legendary all rounders to have graced the cricket field, the 3 Ws, i.e. Frank Worrell any Test series played between West Indies and Australia is named after him , Sir Everton Weekes who has a world record of five Test hundreds in five consecutive innings, Sir Clyde Walcott. As well as devastating pace bowlers such as Wes Hall, Charles Griffith and Malcolm Marshall. Not to forget, one of the finest opening partnerships of all time, Desmond Haynes and Gordon Greenidge have played most of their cricket on this very ground.

Although these days, Barbados like any other of the West Indies pitches has slowed down tremendously due to the lack of quality fast bowlers in a declining national side. Yet, it has been host to the 2007 World Cup final between Australia and Sri Lanka, which was won by Australia, therefore defending the World Cup for the third time in a row successfully. As well as the 2010 World T20 final between Australia and England, which England famously prevailed by 7 wickets thanks to Kevin Pietersens sublime form as he enjoyed batting in friendly conditions.