M A Chidambaram Stadium or Chepauk Stadium is a cricket stadium in Chennai, India. The stadium was established in 1916 and it is the oldest continuously used cricket stadium in the country. Named after M A Chidambaram, former President of BCCI, the stadium was formerly known as Madras Cricket Club Ground. It is the home ground of the Tamil Nadu cricket team and the Indian Premier League team Chennai Super Kings. Chepauk hosted its first test match on 10 February 1934, the first ever Ranji Trophy match in 1936 and Indian cricket team's first ever test victory in 1952 against England. The 1986 India-Australia match held at Chepauk was only the second ever Tied Test in the history of the game.
Location
The stadium is located at Chepauk, a few hundred meters from Marina beach along the Bay of Bengal. The stadium can be accessed from Wallajah Road in the north, Babu Jagjivanram Road in the west and Pycrofts Road in the south. Adjacent to the east of the stadium is the Chepauk MRTS railway station which lies on the Chennai Beach—Velachery section of the Chennai MRTS. The Cooum river runs tangentially to the north side of the stadium.
Crowd
The Chepauk crowd is known to be amongst the most appreciative in the country.[2] The crowd gave a standing ovation to Saeed Anwar after scoring the highest ever ODI score of 194 against India in 1997. The crowd was again appreciative when Pakistan won a Test match in 1999 and the Pakistani team made a lap of honour in appreciation of the spectators' sporting behaviour.[2]
Renovation
Newly renovated stands with fabric tensile roofs
In June 2009, reconstruction work of the stadium was taken up at the cost of ₹175 crore (US$26 million).[4][5] The plan consisted of constructing three new reinforced concrete stands designated I, J, and K accommodating 10,000 spectators and 24 hospitality boxes under translucent PTFE membrane roofs.[6] Hopkins Architects, London and Nataraj & Venkat Architects, Chennai were contracted by the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association.[3]
The renovation was completed in 2011 and the old roofing with pillars that often blocked the view in the old stadium were replaced by light quad conical roofing held together by cables. The stadium can currently accommodate 38,000 spectators which will be expanded to 42,000. The stands are at a gradient of 36° and lets the sea breeze in to get the ground's traditional swing back.[7]
On 31 March 2015, the Supreme Court ruled that the renovation violates regulations relating to public safety.[8][9] The court ruled that the parts of the renovation which violate the regulations must be demolished and until the appropriate planning permissions are issued and the demolition is complete, three stands (I, J, K) must remain sealed.[10][11] Cricket matches take place in the stadium with the I, J, and K stands locked for spectators.
Notable events
- The first ever match of the Ranji Trophy was held on 4 November 1934 between Madras and Mysore at Chepauk.[12] M J Gopalan of Madras bowled the first ball to N Curtis.
- India recorded their first test victory, in their 24th match, against England at Cheupak in 1952.[13]
- The second ever Tied Test in cricket history was played here between India and Australia in 1986.[14]
- Sunil Gavaskar scored his 30th test match century in 1983 breaking Don Bradman's record for most centuries in test cricket.[15]
- Narendra Hirwani's 8 wickets for 61 runs against the West Indies in January 1988 are the best bowling figures by an Indian on Test début and the third overall.[16] As of December 2014, he is the only Indian cricketer to take ten or more wickets in Test debut. Hirwani's figures of 16 wickets for 136 runs in the match are a record for any bowler on début.[17]
- Saeed Anwar of Pakistan scored 194 against India in 1997, the highest ODI score at that time.[18][19]
- On 15 October 2004, Shane Warne surpassed Muttiah Muralitharan's tally of 532 Test wickets to become the highest wicket taker during the time.
- Virender Sehwag scored 319 against South Africa, in the home series in April 2008 in the first Test at M A Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai, having reached 300 off just 278 balls, the fastest triple century in test history. Sehwag became only the third batsman after Donald Bradman and Brian Lara to score two triple centuries in Test Cricket. He scored 257 runs the third day of the match, which was the most runs scored by an individual batsman on a single day of a Test match since 1954, when Dennis Compton made 273 runs on the second day of the Nottingham Test against Pakistan.[20]
- Sachin Tendulkar has scored more runs in Chepauk than any other venue in India with 876 runs in nine Tests at an average of 87.60.[21]
- On 22 March 2001, India defeated Australia by 2 wickets to clinch the Border Gavaskar Trophy following India's win in Kolkata which ended the 16 match winning streak of Australia in test matches.
- India's 387/4 in the fourth innings of the first Test against England in December 2008, became the highest successful run chase in a test match in India.
Records
England hold the record for the highest score on the ground so far when they hit 652-7d runs against India in 1985.[22] India hold the record for the lowest score at the ground when England restricted them to just 83.[23] Sunil Gavaskar (1018 runs) had scored the most number of runs in this stadium followed by Sachin Tendulkar (876 runs) and Gundappa Vishwanath (785 runs) in Tests. Anil Kumble (48 wickets) had taken the most wickets in this stadium followed by Kapil Dev (40 wickets) and Harbhajan Singh (39 wickets) in Tests.
The highest ODI score here was made by Pakistan in 1997 when Pakistan scored 327-5, India replied with 292 all out, which is the third highest score here. The second highest score is 299-8 made by India on 22 October 2015 against South Africa which India defended successfully. The fourth highest score is 289-4 made by Australia against New Zealand. Yuvraj Singh has scored the most number of runs here with 255 runs in ODIs. Mohammad Rafique has taken the most number of wickets (14 wickets), followed by Ajit Agarkar, who is the highest wicket taking Indian cricketer.
Cricket World Cup
This stadium has hosted 7 One Day International matches across 3 world cups. The World cup matches hosted by this stadium are as follows:
1987 Cricket World Cup
1996 Cricket World Cup
2011 Cricket World Cup
See also
References
External links
Coordinates: 13°03′46″N 80°16′46″E / 13.06278°N 80.27944°E / 13.06278; 80.27944
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