Basin Reserve
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| Ground information | |||
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| Location | Wellington, New Zealand | ||
| Coordinates | 41°18′1″S 174°46′49″E / 41.30028°S 174.78028°ECoordinates: 41°18′1″S 174°46′49″E / 41.30028°S 174.78028°E | ||
| Establishment | 1868 | ||
| Capacity | 13,000 | ||
| End names | |||
| Vance Stand End Scoreboard End |
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| International information | |||
| First Test | 24–27 January 1930: New Zealand v  England |
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| Last Test | 12–16 January 2017: New Zealand v  Bangladesh |
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| First ODI | 9 March 1975: New Zealand v England |
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| Last ODI | 25 January 2016: New Zealand v  Pakistan |
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| Team information | |||
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| As of 12 January 2017 Source: CricketArchive |
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The Basin Reserve (commonly known as "The Basin") is a cricket ground in Wellington, New Zealand, used for Test, first-class and one-day cricket. The Basin Reserve is the only cricket ground in New Zealand to have Historic Place status (Category II) as it is the oldest test cricket ground in New Zealand. The ground has been used for events other than cricket, such as concerts, sports events and other social gatherings, but now it is mostly used for cricket, particularly Test matches. It is also the main home ground for Wellington Firebirds.
The Basin Reserve is two kilometres south of the Wellington CBD at the foot of Mount Victoria. Government House, St Marks Church School, and the Wellington College boys' school are to the south of the Basin, across the street. At the eastern end of the basin is the Mount Victoria Tunnel, which increased the traffic flow around the Basin Reserve when it was built in 1931.
The New Zealand Cricket Museum is located in the Old Grandstand. It houses cricket memorabilia and a reference library.
The Basin Reserve is also surrounded by numerous other Wellington landmarks, including Mount Cook Barracks, the National War Memorial, several colleges and high schools, the Caledonian Hotel and the former Dominion Museum. The Basin Reserve is the intersection point for the Wellington suburbs of Mount Cook, Newtown and Mount Victoria.
The area that is now Basin Reserve was originally a lake (known as the Basin Lake), and there were plans to connect it to the sea by a canal to make it an alternative inner city harbour, with major warehouses and factories alongside it. However, the massive 1855 Wairarapa earthquake uplifted the area nearly 1.8 m and turned the lake into a swamp. Due to the colonists' English roots, sport, particularly cricket, was a vital part of the community's way to relax. However, no land had been allocated by the city planners for recreational reserves. Although natural grounds, such as the Te Aro flat, provided a small area for matches, the colonists wanted more recreational land than what they had. The matter became more dire as buildings began to be erected on these flat plains, as flat land was hard to find in the mountainous Wellington. So after the 1855 earthquake, which historians estimate measured 8 on the Richter scale, influential citizens seized the chance in 1857 to suggest that the new land be drained and made into a recreational reserve. The Wellington council accepted the proposal and beginning on 3 February 1863 prisoners from the Mount Cook Gaol began to level and drain the new land. The swamp was drained by September and a fence was placed around the entire area along with hedges. However, massive population influxes from 1863 until 1866 (caused mostly by the Parliament being situated in Wellington) hampered construction on the Basin Reserve as workers were pulled to other areas.
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