Cricket venues seldom fail to fascinate. Those who follow the game around the world and watch cricket religiously always tend to find history tucked in some nook and corner of every ground they visit and would reminisce with childlike enthusiasm whenever they get an opportunity.

Be it Australia, England, India, Pakistan, South Africa or the Islands of the West Indies, Sri Lanka or venues of other Test playing countries there is always something to discover and of interest to savour.

England, I suppose, being the mother country of this glorious game, has a lot to offer if one is really a cricket buff. Being the home of cricket, Lord’s has its own aura reflected in a well-preserved cricket museum and a library. It had plenty to show in its bicentenary year this summer.

Notwithstanding, only four miles away across The Thames, The Oval, where India will play their fifth and final Test of the present series from today to try and save their pride, attracts as much attention when it comes to history.

Whether the Indians will be able to rise to the occasion remains a big question especially after their defeat at Old Trafford in the fourth Test where they failed to see off even one last session of the third day’s play handing the match on the plate to Alastair Cook’s men.

The Oval is historic for the fact that the first-ever Test on English soil was played here between England and Australia, not at Lord’s.

Home of Surrey County, the venue has experienced its good and bad days.

It has served as a war camp, it has staged FA Cup football finals and it boasts of Sir Jack Hobbs, one of the record-breaking English batsmen who amassed 197 first-class centuries, more than any in the history of the game.

It was here that Sir Len Hutton scored 364 in 1938 Ashes Test and the South African Hashim Amla also scored his triple century in a Test in 2012. So far only two triple Test hundreds have been scored.

It was here that Sir Don Bradman made last of his 52 Test appearances in a match in 1948. Needing four runs to have an average of 100 in Tests, he was bowled second ball by the wrist spinner Eric Hollies.

Not forgetting, of course, our own Fazal Mahmood who pulverised the likes of Hutton, Cowdrey, Graveney and Compton to win a Test for Pakistan and earn a draw for his country by taking 12 wickets in 1954. Zaheer Abbas’ 240 against England and Javed Miandad’s 260 were as much memorable feats.

India have had their own heroes in Sunil Gavaskar and Rahul Dravid who both have the honour of scoring double centuries against England here in 1979 and 2002, respectively.

Home ground of the likes of Waqar Younis, Intikhab Alam, Saqlain Mushtaq, The Oval has its own memories to go with. But one that really got the crowd going was one of the greatest demonstrations of fast bowling which I had the privilege to cover was Michael Holding’s sensational pace and his 14 wickets in a Test which made Tony Grieg and his men grovel into submission.

James Anderson is only eight wickets away from Ian Botham’s 383, highest by an Englishman, but he has never had a haul of five wickets at this venue. That is what the crowd here will be waiting to see this iconic cricket arena record another history.

Published in Dawn, August 15th, 2014