What is the name of the cricket ground that hosts the Boxing Day Test in Australia?

The cricket ground that hosts Australia’s Boxing Day Test is the Melbourne Cricket Ground, commonly called the MCG.

The annual Test begins on 26 December in Melbourne and features Australia against a visiting international team during the southern summer. The ground’s connection with the date predates the modern Test tradition: Victoria and New South Wales played a Christmas-period Sheffield Shield match there as far back as 1865, with Boxing Day often included in the schedule.

The first modern Boxing Day Test at Melbourne was scheduled for the 1974–75 Ashes series. The Australian Cricket Board formalised the tradition in 1980, and it became a standard fixture in the Australian cricket calendar. The MCG has hosted one Test match each Australian summer since 1982, with the match beginning on Boxing Day every year since 1995.

A common mix-up is to confuse the Boxing Day Test with Australia’s other major cricket venues, such as the Sydney Cricket Ground. Sydney hosts the New Year’s Test, while Melbourne traditionally stages the Boxing Day match. The MCG is also the venue for the Boxing Day Test’s South Africa and New Zealand counterparts only in separate national traditions, not the Australian fixture.