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The Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) is a cricket stadium in Sydney. It is used for Test cricket, one-day international cricket, some rugby league and rugby union matches, and is the home ground for the New South Wales Blues cricket team and the Sydney Swans of the Australian Football League. It is owned/operated by the SCG Trust that also manages Aussie Stadium located next door.

In 1810, then-Governor Lachlan Macquarie designated an area on the outskirts of the growing colony of Sydney to be Hyde Park, a place which would include a racecourse, a park and a cricket ground. In 1851, a new piece of land south of Victoria Barracks was granted to the British Army for use as a garden and cricket ground for the soldiers. This area became known as Moore Park and was soon the primary location for cricket matches in Sydney.

As the amount of cricket activity began to grow, the New South Wales Cricket Association offered to the Government of New South Wales in 1875 to upgrade the cricket ground in Moore Park, and in 1876, the first SCG was dedicated by Governor Sir Hercules Robinson. The first game of cricket was not played there until 1877, in a game between the New South Wales Government Printing Office and the Audit Office.

The first official cricket game was played in 1879, in a first-class inter-colonial match between NSW and Victoria, which led to the first instance of an Australian Rules Football match being played on the ground on 6 August 1881 (over 100 years before the arrival of the Sydney Swans from Melbourne!) The SCG hosted its first Test cricket match beginning on 17 February 1882, when Australia played England in the sixth ever Test match. Australia won the game by 5 wickets.

In 1886, the Members’ Pavilion was rebuilt, and in 1894 the ground finally received its modern name, the Sydney Cricket Ground, which was followed by the opening of the Hill Stand (also known as the “Bob Stand”) in 1895, followed by the Ladies’ Stand in 1896. The ground continued to grow: by 1903 the Northern Stand was built, the Members’ Pavilion extended, lighting was installed and a scoreboard installed.

A rugby league match was first played at the SCG in 22 June 1910, when the ground hosted a first-grade match between Australia and New Zealand. In 1923 the ground was the location of the Australian national football team playing New Zealand. Australia lost 2-3, the first ever loss on home soil. Further cricket, rugby league and soccer matches would be played at the ground, while more stands (the Sheridan and Noble, the latter replacing the Northern Stand) were erected. In 1938, the British Empire Games (now known as the Commonwealth Games) were played at the SCG.

In 1951, the ground, along with the Sydney Sports Ground was brought under the auspices of an umbrella organization called the Sydney Cricket Ground Trust. Previously, the ground had been under its own board of trustees. The ground would continue to grow, as the Bradman Stand was completed in 1973. The new Trust also agreed to allow women to become members of the ground in 1974, a contemporary step. More improvements, including the installment of modern floodlights in 1978, the Brewongle Stand in 1980, and the installation of the first electronic video scoreboard 1983, the Pat Hill Stand (later renamed the O’Reilly Stand) in 1984, and the replacement of the Sheridan Stand with the new Clive Churchill Stand in 1986 have resulted in the SCG as it is seen today.

The opening of the Sydney Football Stadium (now known as Aussie Stadium) in 1988 removed rugby league and football matches from the ground, which kept the headquarters of NSW Cricket while gaining the new tenant the AFL Sydney Swans from Melbourne in 1982. So far, the Swans have had great success in their new adopted Sydney home, with their greatest match coming in 1996 where the Swans made their first AFL Grand Final in 50 years at home. Thanks to a new LED scoreboard and a refurbishment of the playing surface in 2000, the Swans and Cricket NSW enjoy a top-of-the-line home stadium.

[Source: Wikipedia]