When a journalist goes to the Queen's Park Oval in Trinidad and Tobago to cover cricket matches they pass by the Hilton Trinidad hotel around the Queen's Park Savannah, Port-of-Spain and enter via the St Clair or northern end to reach Oval's the press facilities.
This is the normal course of action when journalists cover matches at the mecca of T&T cricket.
Now imagine journalists who show up at the Ageas Bowl in Southampton, England, to cover the ICC World Cup cricket match between South Africa and the West Indies on Monday. On arrival, hotel employees ask that they check into the Hilton hotel, go to the third floor and there they would find the press box.
Yes, the Hilton hotel in Southampton is actually on the boundary line of the ground and on the third floor is the press box, which overlooks the ground.
As journalists enter the hotel they go to the reception area, present their credentials and indicate they are there to cover the World Cup match. Once your credentials check out, journalists can take the elevator to the third floor where they walk into a corridor leading to several rooms, one of which is tagged 'Media'. On entering this room, journalists are greeted by a spanking new and expansive press box. Next door, at room number 342, is where the radio and TV commentary teams are and just behind that area is a lovely dining and entertainment room for media personnel.
The price of a night's stay at the hotel for guests during the current ICC World Cup is 800 pounds because they also get to see the cricket free as well.
The only other venue that has something similar to this setup is the Dharamsala cricket ground in India but the hotel there is no longer in operation.
The Ageas Bowl includes the residential hotel complex in West End, Hampshire, England, located between the M27 motorway and Telegraph Woods. It is the home of the Hampshire County Cricket Club, who have played there since 2001.
The ground was constructed as a replacement for Hampshire's previous home ground, the County Ground in Southampton, which had been Hampshire's home ground since 1885. Hampshire played their first first-class match at the ground against Worcestershire in May 2001, with Hampshire winning by 124 runs. The ground has since held international cricket, including one-day internationals, with the ground hosting some of the matches in the 2004 Champions Trophy. Two Twenty20 internationals have also been played here, as well as test matches in 2011, 2014 and 2018 which saw England play Sri Lanka and India respectively.
Unfortunately, rain ruined today's match between the Windies and South Africa and the umpires were forced to abandon it, giving both teams a point each.