Azad Maidan – The Home of Cricket in Mumbai
The city of Mumbai is blessed with ample of talent when it comes to cricket. Having won the Ranji Trophy for 40 times, Mumbai is known as the capital of cricket in the country. In this city where cricket is treated as a religion, there has been one holy place for all the Mumbai cricketers. Let it be a 10 year old boy who is novice in cricket or let it be someone like Sachin Tendulkar who has achieved an apogee in cricket, there is one common link between all of them and that is the Azad Maidan.
There isn’t a player who has played cricket with leather ball and hasn’t heard about or hasn’t played at Azad Maidan. In fact most of the cricketers who played for Mumbai and later on for India did actually start their careers at this very venue. But what is so special about Azad Maidan? There are so many other grounds where cricket is played in the city. The one very special thing about this ground is its huge size. It is bigger than the MCG! Currently as many as 22 cricket clubs use the facilities of this ground for practice and matches. Initially, the ground was connected with the Oval Maidan and the Cross maidan. Later it was separated from these two grounds due to construction of roads.
Azad Maidan has a glorious history of more than 100 years. The 1st test match which was played in India, was actually played at the Bombay Gymkhana which is adjacent to Azad Maidan. It has seen the rise of many talented cricketers. A player comes to play cricket at this venue since the time he starts playing in school cricket. The prestigious Harris Shield and Giles shield tournaments are played on this ground majority. Azad Maidan has seen the highest partnership of 664 runs between Sachin Tendulkar and Vinod Kambli back in 1987. It was a world record then. Recently Prithwi Shaw scored 546 runs on 20th November 2013 which is again a record. This underlines the chronicle importance of ground in the development of cricketers. Azad Maidan is indeed the heart of cricket in Mumbai. Every cricketer who comes to play at Azad Maidan always looks at the floodlights of Wankhede Stadium and dreams to reach there someday.
With 22 clubs, managing a ground and keeping it in proper condition is quite a tedious job. The whole ground is divided into smaller grounds which belong to one of the 22 clubs with an imaginary boundary. The shape of these grounds varies a lot from club to club. While some of them have got big enough space, some clubs like Muslim United Cricket Club has very short boundary. In fact, they are so short that the boundary is almost at the same distance as that of the 30 yard circle on one side of the pitch. The importance is given to the square and outfield is ignored in most of the areas of Azad maidan. Due to this fielding in outfield becomes a major issue and player can suffer an injury. However, with the invent of modern cricket, the curators prepare pitches according to the demand of that format. For a T20 match, no grass is kept on wicket but for multiday matches they keep a good amount of grass to make the competition between bat & ball more even.
Due to imaginary boundaries, often batsman gets confused about exact position of the ground and the fielders from opposite teams. Sometimes pitches of two matches are very close which causes the injury to fielders as their position might be right next to the wickets of some another match.The MCA needs to take some measures to improves these things about the ground. Before 10 in morning and after 5 in the evening we can see a tennis ball cricket being played there. The ground is also a favorite place for the selectors to come and watch the matches. The unearthed stars of cricket are spotted here at first.
Recently, there has been a plan to develop a Metro route which includes Azad maidan too. The MMRDA has asked for the area which covers the cricket fields of 18 clubs when amalgamated. Recently MCA has asked MMRDA for a subsitutional place at BKC for giving them the required area of Azad maidan. This might look as a win-win situation for both MCA & MMRDA but the one who will suffer most are the cricketers who play at Azad maidan. Due to location, which is near from CST & Churchgate stations, the ground has been a favorite place for cricketers of all levels. MCA should look for the convenience of these players before deciding about the prospects of ground. After all the ground has a history of over 100 years and now it hasn’t just remained yet ground in the city. It will be good to see Azad maidan keeping its tradition going by nurturing more and more cricketers at its own premises.