A stadium located at (and in) the city’s heart
The win was also a nice tribute to the beloved stadium that celebrates its 50th anniversary this year
Last week, the M Chinnaswamy stadium exploded with joy as our girls in red and blue, the floodlights glinting off their sequined jersey numbers, took the game away from the UP Warriorz in their campaign for the WPL 2024 trophy. It was a bittersweet moment for RCB fans, for the match also marked the girls’ last WPL 2024 game in their home stadium. For over two weeks, the long lines outside and the roars inside had demonstrated convincingly that women’s cricket was no longer the poorer cousin of the men’s game, at least as far as the Bengaluru fans were concerned. The win was also a nice tribute to the beloved stadium that celebrates its 50th anniversary this year.
Technically, the foundation stone of the Chinnaswamy stadium, originally called the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) stadium, was laid in 1969. But if you believe that a cricket stadium truly comes to life when it hosts its first Test match, that honour was granted to our stadium only in 1974. Excitement reached fever pitch as the match dates approached, but the stadium was far from complete, its eastern stands no more than wooden planks held up by casuarina poles. In response to a High Court directive to ensure public safety, the KSCA bolstered the poles with thousands of cement bags, a precious, rationed commodity in those times, and the show went off without a hitch.
In that first match of their India tour, Clive Lloyd’s West Indians, including Alvin Kallicharan, debutants Gordon Greenidge and Vivian Richards, and Andy Roberts, thrashed MAK Pataudi’s boys, among them Sunil Gavaskar, Farokh Engineer, and Karnataka greats EAS Prasanna, B Chandrasekhar, Brijesh Patel and GR Viswanath, by a whopping 267 runs. That was probably when the curse was laid – since then, Chinnaswamy stadium has had the reputation of being a happy hunting ground for visiting teams.
Luckily for us, Pakistan has bucked that trend – of the three times they have faced off against India here, India has only lost once – at Sunny Gavaskar’s swansong Test in 1987, and that by a whisker. In a spruced-up, floodlit stadium, at the quarter finals of the 1996 ODI World Cup, India registered a resounding win.
The relatively small size of the ground has proved a headache for bowlers, a joy for hitters, and an absolute delight for the capacity crowd of 32,000. And yet, this was where local lad Anil Kumble, cheered on by his home crowd, bagged his 400th Test wicket, sneaking past Australian Simon Katich’s defenses in 2004. An admiring city commemorated the achievement by renaming the Oriental Circle, located just outside the stadium, Anil Kumble Circle.
Speaking of renaming, when did the KSCA stadium become the M Chinnaswamy stadium? And who was Chinnaswamy, anyway? A Mandya-born lawyer and passionate cricket fan, Mangalam Chinnaswamy, born 124 years ago this month, served the KSCA for close to four decades, first as secretary and then president, until his retirement in 1990. Alongside, from 1960 to 1980, he also held office at the BCCI, serving as its president from 1977 to 1980. It was he who convinced the Mysore government to allot a parcel of land by the historic Cubbon Park for the stadium, and lease it to the KSCA for one hundred years. This busy, busy man was also one of the founders of the city’s MES group of educational institutions.
In 1987, four years before he passed away and much against his wishes, the KSCA stadium was renamed the M Chinnaswamy stadium in honour of his services to the beautiful game. Now you know.
(Roopa Pai is a writer who has carried on a longtime love affair with her hometown Bengaluru)