Centurion Park is a

cricket ground 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 st ...

Centurion, Gauteng Centurion (previously known as Verwoerdburg and before that Lyttelton) is an area with 236,580 inhabitants (2011 census) in the Gauteng Province of South Africa, between Pretoria and Midrand (Johannesburg). Formerly an independent municipality, ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring count ...

. It is also known as SuperSport Park since television company Supersport bought shares in the stadium. The capacity of the ground is 22,000. The

Titans cricket team The Titans (known as the Multiply Titans for sponsorship reasons) are the northernmost top-level cricket franchise in South Africa. Its member unions are the Eastern Cricket Union and Northerns Cricket Union. The home venues of the Titans are ...

have played most of their home games here since 2004. The ground was home to the Titans' predecessor team Northerns (previously ''Northern Transvaal'') since 1986.

Name

The town of ''Verwoerdburg'' was renamed ''Centurion'' at the end of

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

, with the politically neutral new name of the town coming from that of the cricket ground.

Notable fixtures

Test matches

The first Test match at Centurion was held in November 1995, as the opening match of the first post-apartheid

tour of South Africa The Tour of South Africa was a stage cycling race in South Africa that was only held once, in 2011. It was part of UCI Africa Tour as a 2.2 The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), the world's governing body in the sport of bicycle racing, clas ...

by the

England cricket team The England cricket team represents England and Wales in international cricket. Since 1997, it has been governed by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), having been previously governed by Marylebone Cricket Club (the MCC) since 1903. Eng ...

; however, the match was drawn after being severely affected by rain. Centurion was the venue for the notorious fifth Test match of the next England tour in 2000, when (after three days' play were lost to rain) South African captain

Hansie Cronje Wessel Johannes "Hansie" Cronje (25 September 1969 – 1 June 2002) was a South African international cricketer and captain of the South African national cricket team in the 1990s. A right-handed all-rounder, as captain Cronje led his team to vi ...

forfeited his team's second innings to allow for a result on the final day of the match, which England won. It was later revealed that Cronje had done so after being approached by a

bookmaker A bookmaker, bookie, or turf accountant is an organization or a person that accepts and pays off bets on sporting and other events at agreed-upon odds. History The first bookmaker, Ogden, stood at Newmarket in 1795. Range of events Book ...

and offered money to stop the match ending in a draw. Further controversy occurred in 2001, when the scheduled third Test between South Africa and India at Centurion was declared to be an "unofficial" Test after the

Board of Control for Cricket in India The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is the national governing body for cricket in India. Its headquarters are situated at Cricket centre, Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. The BCCI is the richest governing body of cricket in the world ...

refused to accept the

International Cricket Council The International Cricket Council (ICC) is the world governing body of cricket. Headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, its members are List of International Cricket Council members, 108 national associations, with 12 List of Internation ...

's match referee,

Mike Denness Michael Henry Denness (1 December 1940 – 19 April 2013) was a Scottish cricketer who played for England, Scotland, Kent and Essex. Scotland did not have a representative international team at the time of Denness' career, so he could only play ...

, who had disciplined several Indian players in the previous match at Port Elizabeth. In December 2010, India batsman

Sachin Tendulkar Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar (; ; born 24 April 1973) is an Indian former international cricketer who captained the Indian national team. He is regarded as one of the greatest batsmen in the history of cricket. He is the all time highest run-sco ...

scored his 50th Test century at Centurion in the first Test of the 2010–11 Indian tour of South Africa. From the summer of 2018/19, the ground usually hosts a Boxing Day Test.

One-Day Internationals

Centurion was a venue for the

2003 Cricket World Cup The 2003 ICC Cricket World Cup was the eighth Cricket World Cup, organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). It was co-hosted by South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya from 9 February to 23 March 2003. This edition of the World Cup was the f ...

which took place in South Africa. It was also selected as a venue for the

2009 ICC Champions Trophy The 2009 ICC Champions Trophy was a One Day International cricket tournament held in South Africa between 22 September and 5 October, at Wanderers Stadium and Centurion Park, both in the Gauteng province. Originally, the tournament was scheduled ...

and hosted the final on 5 October 2009.

Other cricket competitions

The

2009 Indian Premier League The 2009 Indian Premier League season, abbreviated as IPL 2 or the 2009 IPL, was the second season of the Indian Premier League, established by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in 2007. The tournament was hosted by South Africa an ...

was held in South Africa, and Centurion was one of eight grounds used. It hosted twelve matches, including one of the semi-finals. Supersport Park also hosted a domestic and continental Sixes tournament, where home side, the

Titans In Greek mythology, the Titans ( grc, οἱ Τῑτᾶνες, ''hoi Tītânes'', , ''ho Tītân'') were the pre-Olympian gods. According to the ''Theogony'' of Hesiod, they were the twelve children of the primordial parents Uranus (Sky) and Gai ...

, came out on top in the domestic competition, and

winning the continental competition against

Kenya ) , national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

in the final.

Other sports

Centurion hosted an Australian rules football practice match in 2008 between Carlton and

Fremantle Fremantle () () is a port city in Western Australia, located at the mouth of the Swan River in the metropolitan area of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth. The Western Australian vernacular diminutive for ...

Music

On 17 September 2011, Irish vocal pop band

Westlife Westlife is an Irish pop vocal group formed in Dublin, Ireland in 1998. The group currently consists of members Shane Filan, Mark Feehily, Kian Egan, and Nicky Byrne. Brian McFadden was a member, until he left in 2004. The group temporari ...

held a concert for Gravity Tour supporting their album

Gravity In physics, gravity () is a fundamental interaction which causes mutual attraction between all things with mass or energy. Gravity is, by far, the weakest of the four fundamental interactions, approximately 1038 times weaker than the str ...

Records

Cricket records

Test records

* Highest Test Total: 621 –

vs.

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 ...

, 26 December 2020 * Highest Individual Test Score: 208 –

Hashim Amla Hashim Mahomed Amla OIS (born 31 March 1983) is a South African former international cricketer who played for South Africa in all three formats of the game. Amla holds the record for being the fastest ever to score 2000, 3000, 4000, 5000, 6000 ...

vs.

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Great ...

, 17 December 2014 * Best Test Innings Bowling Figures: 7/29 – Kyle Abbott,

vs.

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

, 22 February 2013 * Best Test Match Bowling Figures: 13/144 –

Kagiso Rabada Kagiso Rabada (born 25 May 1995) is a South African international cricketer who plays all formats of the game. He is a right arm fast bowler. He made his international debut in November 2014 in limited-overs cricket before going on to make his ...

vs.

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

, 22 January 2016

References

External links

*{{cricinfo, ref=southafrica/content/ground/59079.html, check-wikidata=no Cricket grounds in South Africa Australian rules football grounds 2003 Cricket World Cup stadiums Sports venues in Pretoria Test cricket grounds in South Africa