It's always nice to tick off another cricket ground. Previous visits to South Africa have not included Gqeberha (formerly Port Elizabeth) and the iconic St George's Park.
Colleagues who had been here previously had spoken in glowing terms about its charms, and it's easy to see why. The Duck Pond End holds one of the iconic descriptors in the game, while opposite you are greeted by the Graeme Pollock Pavilion.
There is an imperfectness which makes it so attractive. The stands are different levels, and there are gaps at certain points around the perimeter. The Freilinghaus Stand, where the famous St George's Park Band plays, has recently had a new roof completed, just days before the start of this Test, has part of some much-needed restoration work.
"I don't think that this Test match against Australia would have taken place if certain things were not ready," Edward Khoza, chief operation officer for the 2027 World Cup organizing committee, said recently.
It is a storied venue. The oldest Test ground in South Africa, which became the third country to stage the game, hosted the country's first Test in 1889 when the hosts played England. It also held the first women's Test staged in the country in 1960. It was previously a dual-sport venue, with rugby also played here before it moved out with the ground struggling to cope with the traffic. In South Africa, cricket grounds are still, mostly, cricket grounds.
In a nod to the modern age, the spare drop-in pitch for the new interchangeable surfaces is housed near the grass banks.
Historically, one of the ground's most significant features is along the wall of the stand in the Duck Pond Pavilion. It is a series of newspaper front pages that chronicle South African cricket's slide into sporting isolation during Apartheid, starting with the selection of Basil D'Oliveria to tour with the MCC in 1968 and moving up until the early 1970s when official international tours were cancelled.
What transpired in that era is well known even for those who didn't live through it, but reading contemporaneous reporting at the time is important and, often, difficult in equal measure.
The Eastern Cape, of which Gqeberha is the largest city, is also the birthplace of Nelson Mandela who was born in Mvezo, about 450km northwest of where we are. The bay which Gqeberha sits on carries his name as do many institutions and buildings.