The heart of the game
The Antipodean shrine of cricket is certain to bring its famed sense of occasion to the World Cup
The Melbourne Cricket Ground - rarely called anything but its initials, or just "the G" - perches upon a gentle hill a ten-minute walk from the city. It is an awe-inspiring edifice of concrete and steel, with high, tiered stands encircling the oval like a fortress wall. Seating close to 100,000, a ground of this scale is unknown in cricket outside the subcontinent and dwarfs any other Antipodean ground.
Australia v Sri Lanka 2010
Visiting Australia for a soupçon of an ODI series, Sri Lanka came upon a beat-up team with stand-in captain Michael Clarke. They didn't take their opportunity until late in the game, though, when at 107 for 8 chasing 240, Lasith Malinga teamed up with the imperturbable Angelo Mathews. Malinga made a half-century, Mathews stayed composed, and Murali won the match with a four. It smacked Australia into a miserable summer.
Pakistan's finest moment in international cricket came as the charismatic Imran Khan led a team of giants to victory over England. Wasim Akram wondrously turned the tables to provide the defining moment of the last Antipodean World Cup. It poses a stiff return run for the final come March 2015.
Most runs Ricky Ponting, 2108 at 56.97 | Top score Mark Waugh, 173 v West Indies
Most wickets Shane Warne, 46 at 22.6 | Best bowling Ajit Agarkar, 6 for 42 v Australia
While Melbourne has produced the most celebrated of all legspinners in Shane Warne, Victoria is perennially underrepresented in international cricket. Currently only Peter Siddle, along with Aaron Finch and Glenn Maxwell in ODIs, are regular starters for Australia. Victorians inevitably blame this upon political machinations by their northern rivals in New South Wales, and indeed two of its great natives, Keith Miller and Neil Harvey, moved to that state mid-career.
Warwick Armstrong | Bill Ponsford | Keith Miller | Neil Harvey | Bill Lawry | Dean Jones | Merv Hughes | Shane Warne | Peter Siddle | Meg Lanning
Benjamin, a resident of Melbourne, is writing a thesis on "Music about Donald Bradman"