Edgbaston Foundation Ground, formerly Mitchells and Butlers' Ground, is a

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

ground in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...

. The ground, near the

Mitchells & Butlers brewery Mitchells & Butlers Brewery was formed when Henry Mitchell's old Crown Brewery (founded in Smethwick in 1866) merged with William Butler's Brewery (also founded in Smethwick in 1866) in 1898. Henry Mitchell had moved to the Cape Hill site in ...

, was owned by

Mitchells & Butlers Mitchells & Butlers plc (also referred to as "M&B") runs circa 1,784 managed pubs, bars and restaurants throughout the United Kingdom. The company's headquarters are in Birmingham, England. The company is listed on the London Stock Exchange an ...

, which had its headquarters in Birmingham. The first recorded match on the ground was in 1888, when Mitchells played Warwickshire Club and Ground. The first first-class match came in 1931 when

played

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

. From 1931 to 1939, the ground hosted 9 first-class matches. First-class cricket returned to the ground in 1957, with Warwickshire play 4 further first-class matches at the ground. The following season the last of which was between Warwickshire and

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

. Additionally, the ground has played host to a number of matches involving the Warwickshire Second XI between 1949 and 1992. The ground has also hosted a number of

ICC Trophy The ICC World Cup Qualifier (previously called the ICC Trophy and officially known as the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup Qualifier) is a One-Day International (ODI) cricket tournament that serves as the culmination of the Cricket World Cup qualifi ...

matches, the first of which came in the

1979 ICC Trophy The 1979 ICC Trophy was a limited overs cricket tournament held in England between 22 May and 21 June 1979. It was the inaugural ICC Trophy tournament to be staged, with matches between the 15 participating teams played over 60 overs a side and w ...

between

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

and

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

. From 1979 to 1986, the ground hosted 4 ICC Trophy matches, the last of which saw Denmark play the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

in the

1986 ICC Trophy The 1986 ICC Trophy was a limited-overs cricket tournament held in England between 11 June and 7 July 1986. It was the third ICC Trophy tournament to be staged, and as with the previous two tournaments, games between the 16 participating teams pla ...

. The final county match on the ground to date came in 1993 when the Warwickshire Second XI played the Marylebone Cricket Club Young Cricketers. Located just off Portland Road, today the ground is used as a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

venue and the home of Portland Pavilion Social Club. In late 2013, it was announced that

Warwickshire County Cricket Club Warwickshire County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Warwickshire. Its T20 team is called the Birmingham Bears. Founde ...

were in advanced talks to take control of the ground, to be used as a home for its Second XI and Youth Teams. In early November of the same year, Warwickshire's Chief Executive

Colin Povey Colin Povey is the Chief Executive of Warwickshire County Cricket Club. He was formerly Chief Executive of Carlsberg. He was educated at the Lancaster Royal Grammar School. He captained England at Water Polo and played for and coached the Great B ...

announced that the ground would be up and running for the 2015 season, with a new, smaller, pavilion, to replace that which was already at the site. It is possible that First-Class games will be played at the ground on occasion in the future, if Warwickshire's home

Edgbaston Edgbaston () is an affluent suburban area of central Birmingham, England, historically in Warwickshire, and curved around the southwest of the city centre. In the 19th century, the area was under the control of the Gough-Calthorpe family an ...

is out of use, for an extended period, such as was the case for the 2013 Champions Trophy. It became the Edgbaston Foundation Sports Ground and is used by the Warwickshire CCC setup.

References

External links

Mitchells and Butlers' Ground
on CricketArchive

on

Cricinfo ESPN cricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including liveblogs and scorecards), and ''StatsGuru'', a d ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Edgbaston Foundation Ground Cricket grounds in the West Midlands (county) Mitchells & Butlers Sports venues completed in 1888 Sports venues in Birmingham, West Midlands Sports venues completed in 2015