Headingley Cricket Ground

Headingley Cricket Ground stands at the edge of Leeds. The red-brick pavilion runs along the boundary and looks older than the steel and glass of the stands behind it, a contrast that does not change even after the rebuild.

The original main stand burned down in 1932 and the replacement that followed stood until 2018, when work began on the new North and South Stand. The Carnegie Pavilion was finished in 2010, and permanent floodlights came in 2015. The surface is natural grass, the wicket prepared by the ground staff with mowing, pressing and flooding.

England have chased 283 here to win by a single wicket in a contest, and they have followed on to victory before that. A match abandoned once after the pitch was cut into strips, and another time the clean-sheet run came to an end in the final moments of play. The ground has hosted World Cup matches and county finals, but the nights under the lights are where the character shows itself most clearly.

Sponsor boards change with every season, but the brickwork and the sightlines remain, and the players still walk out onto the same strip. The capacity is 18,350, but that number means little when the stands are full and the wind is blowing straight through the valley. The address is St Michael's Lane, Headingley, Leeds, and the website is www.yorkshireccc.com, though what matters is what happens on the field when the first ball is bowled.