Being a huge cricket fan, a trip to the MCG was always going to be one of the highlight's of my cricket club's tour to the Golden Country.
Before we'd even got into the ground I was totally overawed, the sheer size of the ground was just so far greater than anything that a cricket fan can envisage in this country. The ground hold 100,108 people - to put this into context the largest ground in England holds just under 30,000!
The first thing you see when walking up to the ground are the eight massive floodlight pylons designed to allow day/night cricket - again, there are no grounds in England with permanent floodlights.
We had our tickets in our hands - printed off with the barcode folded over the correct way and headed through the turnstile. Here was one feature that I was so impressed with, despite the fact that 65,000 people were there on the first day of the Boxing Day test match, there were very short queues and never once were you cramped into a throng of supporters, as you sometimes are at super stadia.
As we walked into the concourse and caught our first sight of the playing arena, we were all taken aback. Here there were 4 tiers of banked seating, stretching all the way around the ground, completely encasing the entire pitch. We were seated in the fourth tier, really up in the gods, but despite the distance we still had an excellent view of the play.
On that first day we saw Ricky Ponting make yet another century, and a really good day's cricket between two of the top three teams in the world.
On the third day we moved into the infamous Bay 13 - where all of the noise is created and we had an excellent view of the pitch - almost within touching distance of the players!
The tickets were not too expensive, only £18 for excellent seats in one of the best sporting stadia - when this is compared to about £50 for a seat at any of England's test match grounds it represents excellent value. The food, however was slightly overpriced - £2.50 for a very small portion of chips - and there was not a wide range available. The beer was expensive too, £3 for a half pint of mid-strength lager!
Overall, however, I would say that any cricket or sporting fan in general must make the 'G (as the locals know it!) a must-see if you are lucky enough to find yourself in Melbourne!
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