The Ashes at The G: ‘Melbourne, Boxing Day, a coliseum with 100,000 in — it can get to players’
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The stadiums many consider to be the greatest in world cricket elicit varying reactions when you witness them in person.
Visit the picturesque surroundings of Lord’s and you’ll be completely engulfed in history, tradition and pomp and ceremony.
Watch a big, white-ball match involving India at Eden Gardens in Kolkata and the din generated by the manically passionate home supporters will be so ear-piercing it will override all thoughts in your brain.
And then there’s Melbourne Cricket Ground in Victoria, Australia. Also known as the MCG. Also known as ‘The G’.
Walk inside the gigantic, 100,000-capacity stadium for the first time, gaze open-mouthed at the vast, four-tiered arena and try and utter anything other than: “Wow.”
Other cricket grounds have far more character than the fairly nondescript bowl structure that will host the traditional Boxing Day Test when Australia look to go 4-0 up in the Ashes against the English. But hardly any in the world can rival the MCG for that awe-inspiring sense of size and scale. It’s a breathtaking venue.
The then-record attendance flashes up on the big screen at the MCG in England’s visit in December 2013 (Scott Barbour/Getty Images)
In fact, in terms of capacity, few in the world of sport, let alone just cricket, can challenge the magnitude of the MCG.
The stadium is believed to be the 11th biggest in the world, with a capacity of 100,024. In cricket — and indeed all sports — only the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad can beat that at 132,000, although the record attendance there is some way shorter at 104,859 for the 2022 IPL final. A Coldplay concert actually holds the official stadium record, with 111,989, earlier this year.
Other than the Rungrado May Day Stadium in Pyongyang, North Korea, at a reported capacity of 114,000 — which The Athletic has been unable to visit to verify — the MCG is the next-biggest sport stadium in the world outside the United States, where many college football stadiums make up the rest of the top 10.
World’s biggest stadia by capacity
StadiumReported capacityCityCountrySports
Narendra Modi
132,000
Ahmedabad
India
Cricket
Rungrado May Day
113,281
Pyongyang
North Korea
Soccer, athletics, marathon, mass games
Michigan
107,601
Ann Arbor, Michigan
United States
American football
Beaver
106,572
State College, Pennsylvania
United States
American football
Ohio
102,780
Columbus, Ohio
United States
American football
Kyle Field
102,733
College Station, Texas
United States
American football
Tiger
102,321
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
United States
American football
Neyland
101,915
Knoxville, Tennessee
United States
American football
Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial
100,119
Austin, Texas
United States
American football
Bryant-Denny
100,077
Tuscaloosa, Alabama
United States
American football
MCG
100,024
Melbourne, Victoria
Australia
Cricket, Aussie Rules
The MCG, which hosts the Australian Football League (AFL) from March to September, gains its reputation from its size, yes, but also its intimidating atmosphere.
“It’s more of a cauldron than any other ground,” says former England captain Nasser Hussain. As a player or broadcaster, The Athletic’s columnist has visited pretty much every cricket ground worth knowing in the world. “I use that word carefully because it’s just… sometimes you literally get lost in the middle. You look around and you go: ‘It’s just the same all the way around.’
“The MCG is just a massive bowl. It’s huge, and you’re stood in the middle of it.
“You look around and everywhere looks the same. I wouldn’t say it’s my favourite ground, for that reason. I love a place with a bit of character. But Melbourne, Boxing Day, when you are in a coliseum with 100,000 in… it can get to players.
“And you get a sense of occasion with it being the Boxing Day Test. You know people are watching at home on Christmas night. Families have often come out and you’ve had Christmas Day thinking about the cricket and spending time with family. It’s an occasion.
“It’s what you grew up watching or listening to on the radio.”
The MCG with the Melbourne skyline behind (Morgan Hancock/AFL Photos/via Getty Images)
You can’t imagine Jacob Bethell or Todd Murphy will enjoy too much sleep tonight.
Off-spinner Murphy may have played seven Tests and even experienced Ashes cricket before in England in 2023, but, given his position as backup to Nathan Lyon, he has never previously played at this level in Australia. Tomorrow, in front of a sell-out crowd of around 100,000 people, the proud Victorian will stride out on his home ground against the old enemy for the first time.
“My advice would be to soak it in and really enjoy the moment,” Scott Boland, another Victoria native who claimed scarcely believable figures of 6-7 from four overs in the second innings of his Test debut when England last played at the MCG in 2021, said on the eve of the match.
“You never know when the next one is going to be. Todd’s probably one of the most level-headed blokes you’ll come across, so I don’t think he’ll be overawed too much.”
Victorians Todd Murphy and Scott Boland pose wearing Shane Warne floppy hats at the MCG (Morgan Hancock/Getty Images)
One thing Murphy is guaranteed is rowdy backing from the infamous Bay 13 section of the ground, known for its rambunctious atmosphere, its beer snakes and its ruthless goading of the opposition.
“No better place to be,” hometown hero and former Australia fast bowler Merv Hughes, who sports one of the finest moustaches the sport has ever seen, once said. “I’ve always said there’s only one thing better than being in the Australian side playing at the MCG, and that’s being a Victorian in the Australian team playing at the MCG.”
Bethell, set to come into the England team at No 3 in the batting order in place of Ollie Pope, has only played four Test matches in his short career and yet, tomorrow morning, he could be walking out to bat at the MCG on Boxing Day with the majority of the biggest crowd he’s ever played in front of baying for him to fail.
Fans in Bay 13 imitate South Africa’s Anrich Nortje in December 2022 (Daniel Pockett – CA/Cricket Australia via Getty Images)
For an opposition batter, walking out from the dark underbelly of the MCG up into the enormous arena must be one of the most daunting experiences the sport has to offer.
“It’s as close to a coliseum as you’re going to get,” Matt Prior said on the English cricket documentary, The Edge. “If you imagine the film Gladiator where they’re sat waiting and the dust is almost coming down. And you’re just thinking: ‘Right, we’re going out into this cauldron of fire’.
“You walk out and you know you’re going into one of the most intimidating atmospheres in world cricket.”
The AFL Grand Final between Geelong Cats and Brisbane Lions at the MCG in September 2025 (Josh Chadwick/AFL Photos/via Getty Images)
It’s that walk, from what is in effect a sporting dungeon up to the pitch, that sets the MCG apart from most cricketing venues.
Underneath the pitch is a two-level car park, complete with a road circling the basement level of the stadium. The changing rooms, a player canteen and a media conference room are down there, too.
It is dark, nondescript and, well, it’s an underground car park… if you’ve been in one, that’s exactly what it’s like at the MCG too, with the odd flicker of natural light shining down the tunnelled ramps.
This kind of setup is common in modern sport stadiums. In the Premier League, think the London Stadium, home to West Ham United but formerly an arena that hosted the 2012 Olympic Games. But for cricketers, or more specifically batters, it changes the dynamics of how you mentally prepare yourself before going out into the middle.
“It’s a tunnel and there’s a whole other infrastructure that you just don’t get at other cricket grounds,” Hussain adds. “In the dressing room you’re quite a bit away from the action. You’re effectively in an underground dungeon, but it’s also a massive air-conditioned room.
“I always hated going from an air-conditioned, bright room, then a dark road, then the light of the sky hits you as you walk out towards the pitch.
“I always felt better if you could sit, watch and feel the sense of temperature and the crowd before you get out there.”
The former Australia opener David Warner in the tunnel out to the pitch at the MCG in 2015 (Michael Dodge-ICC/ICC via Getty Images)
Hussain and Prior have both been part of England teams that have won at the MCG.
Hussain’s team-mates Dean Headley and Darren Gough bowled England to victory in 1998 when they won one of the tightest Ashes Tests in history by just 12 runs. Prior was behind the stumps in 2010 for one of the greatest days in modern English cricket history when Australia were bowled out for 98 and England then reached 157-0 at the close on Boxing Day.
The chances of something similar being repeated tomorrow are extremely slim, but the place does have a habit of producing rare cricketing moments. Take Boland’s exceptional figures four years ago, or Shane Warne’s hat-trick against England in 1994 — the first Ashes hat-trick, three wickets in three balls, in 90 years. The great man also took his milestone 700th Test wicket on his home ground of the MCG, also against England, in 2006.
Warne is one of the central characters of the stadium’s 160 years of history. A statue depicting him about to unleash another leg break stands outside the stadium. There are commemorations, too, of Sir Don Bradman, Dennis Lillee and Neil Harvey as well as some AFL legends.
A stand also now bears Warne’s name, while a new exhibition in the Australian Sports Museum showcases 48 of Warne’s most prized personal items, including the famous ‘Gatting Ball’ used to dismiss England batter Mike Gatting in 1993, his 1999 Cricket World Cup winners medal and his iconic floppy white hat.
The Shane Warne statue at gate one of the MCG (Dave Hewison/Speed Media/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
The MCG was where Warne announced himself as a future star of Test cricket against the West Indies in 1993. It was also where people gathered to pay their respects following his death in 2022.
“Everyone has the dream for an Australian cricketer to play in the Boxing Day Test match at the MCG,” Warne once said. “For a Victorian to be able to do it, that was pretty amazing.
“The crowd gets right behind the Vics. I was lucky enough to do some pretty special things on Boxing Day with the team and also with myself: I got a hat-trick, I got a 700th wicket, which was pretty cool.”
Pretty cool indeed.
While the MCG may have changed a lot over the years, with its charm perhaps sacrificed for an increased capacity, one thing has not altered — its huge dimensions, particularly its width of 174 metres from one side to the other, which makes the pitch one of the widest in the world.
That changes not only how hard and high a batter needs to smash the ball if they go the aerial route and attempt to hit a six, but also how a captain places their field.
“There are cricketing things you have to work out, like the breeze,” says Hussain. “You saw in Adelaide the cool (breeze) change came in and the wrappers and crisps packets were blowing one way and you knew which way Nathan Lyon would bowl with a bit of drift.
“At the MCG, you can throw a bit of grass up in the air and it’s like Augusta at Amen Corner. Throw it at one end of the ground and it’ll get blown one way; throw it at the other end, it goes another way. It can be a swirling wind around the coliseum.
The hulking MCG (Dylan Burns/Getty Images)
“Obviously it’s just a very big playing area. On my tour as captain (2002-03), Matthew Hoggard was on down there with Matthew Hayden on strike. I said to Hoggy: ‘It’s the MCG; don’t go all the way on the boundary, come in 10 (yards)’.
“Hoggy sort of came in about 30, Hayden had a hook and it went straight over his head and landed for four. I’m like that (outstretched arms) and he said: ‘You told me to come in’.
“’Yeah, but not 30 yards. Just 10 yards. I know it’s the MCG but you’re our short fine leg there and Matty Hayden’s quite good on the hook’.
“With batting, it’s such a big expanse of acreage. When you’re trying to take it on, again, into a swirling wind, you have to be really careful. I’ve seen fives all run there. You’re going to have to hit it properly, the hook shot, to clear the boundary.”
Something will happen tomorrow. It’s the MCG, it’s Boxing Day — an iconic day in the cricket calendar and so often a momentous event.
“It’s just that underlying sense of occasion,” Hussain adds. “The MCG is just that little bit more: ‘Wow’.”
