Chepauk - one of the great cricketing venues

It is acknowledged as one of the great cricketing venues in the world. It has history, tradition and a certain ambience all its own that has won the admiration of players, officials and mediapersons from all over the country and abroad. The MA Chidambaram stadium in Chepauk, Chennai, is also the most famous sporting landmark in a city that prides itself on sporting excellence and producing some of the greatest sportsmen and women in the country. Quite appropriately, the hallowed turf has seen numerous outstanding performances and has been witness to many stand-out international matches, headed by Tied Test II.

With Chepauk is intimately associated the Madras Cricket Club. It issaid that club records date from August 1848 but that its historyactually began on the Island grounds. In March 1865, it applied to theMadras Government for permission to enclose by what is called a''movable fence'', an area of ground not more than a hundred yards byeighty in extent. Permission, however, was denied. The club renewed therequest two months later, but at Chepauk, not on the Island grounds. It is easy to see why. Ten years earlier in 1855, the MadrasGovernment had abolished the title of the Nawab of Arcot on the deathof the last titular Nawab Ghulam Muhammad Ghouse. It sold the palaceand the grounds by public auction. So now land was available forcricket in Chepauk in its whole area quite as big as the Island itself.The MCC's second request was granted. It was permitted to enclose apiece of ground on the Chepauk premises as a cricket ground. This wasthe beginning of Chepauk as a cricket ground.

There were regular visits between Madras and Ceylon from 1865 -- earlyprecursors of the Gopalan Trophy matches, the first match of whichthere is adequate record that it was played against Lord Hawke's teamin 1892. And by the time the next visiting English team played atChepauk in 1902, some Indians had started to make an impact. Andforemost among them was Buchi Babu who was the leading personality inthe early history of Indian cricket in Madras. He was a great patronpassionately devoted to the game. He died young but his three sons wereall excellent cricketers. 'Bhat' and Baliah batted in the old regaltradition while C Ramaswami went on to play for India. It was BuchiBabu who organized the Indian team for the Presidency or Pongal matchesagainst the Europeans. This competition made cricket popular with themasses. It began in 1916 and with a break in 1934 continued till 1952.Thirty three matches were played in all, with the Indians winning 15and the Europeans eight.

The Presidency matches brought into limelight some of the greatest ofcricketers and gave cricket at Chepauk a great fillip. On the Indianside, there was the incomparable CK Nayudu who strode the cricketingworld like a colossus. But he received able support from the localstars like 'Bhat', Baliah, C Ramaswami, B Subramaniam, AVKrishnaswami, CKK Pillai, MJ Gopalan and AG Ram Singh. On the Europeanside, there was the majestic figure of CP Johnstone who went on tocaptain Madras in the Ranji Trophy, ably supported by HP Ward, anOxford Blue, PN Miller, JWA Stephenson and RB Carrick, who was renownedfor his big hitting.

Bu the Presidency match was bound to be affected because of thepolitical developments in the country. A few years after independence,the Europeans could not raise a team. The last match in 1952 waswatched by precisely nine spectators, three of whom were journalistswho had to attend it. Yet, in the heyday of the competition in thethirties, thousands had struggled to gain admission to the ground. Buteven apart from desiccation of the Europeans, the competition was boundto become anachronistic. The Ranji Trophy tournament established in1934 was fast becoming popular and as a territorial tournament wasbound to become the nation's principal competition. It establisheditself firmly even in its first decade.

The first Ranji Trophy match in fact was played at Chepauk on November4, 1934. It was a typical monsoon day with the sky heavily overcast.One day sufficed for Madras to beat Mysore by an innings and 23 runs.Gopalan bowled the first ball in the tournament, Ram Singh captured sixfor 19 and Johnstone four for 10 as Mysore batting first on arain-affected pitch collapsed for 48. In Madras' reply of 130, onlyfour batsmen attained double figures, Ramaswami top scoring with 26. MGVijayasarathi captured six for 23. Mysore, facing a deficit for 82,failed again, this time for 59. Ram Singh dismissed half the side for16 while Gopalan claimed three for 20. Gopalan and Ram Singh were thequintessential Madras cricketers of this generation and in time becameliving legends.

Although international cricket had come to Chepauk, it was the visit ofArthur Gilligan's MCC team in 1926-27 that really caught theimagination and saw a spurt in the game's popularity. And by the timethe next MCC team came around in 1933-34, India had already attainedTest status and the first Test to be played at Chepauk was in February1934 when England won by 202 runs. Since then, the hallowed turf hasbeen witness to many national and international matches. Chepauk'ssylvan settings had a charm all its own but modern internationalstandards meant that a stadium had to be built. In February 1971, thefoundation stone was laid for what became the MA Chidambaram stadium.It was built in stages and was completed by the end of the decade andis now an imposing structure with the Tamil Nadu Cricket Associationtaking steps to add more and more modern facilities in keeping withtoday's highly professional standards.

Over the years, Madras (or Tamil Nadu) has seen the rise of manycricketers who have graced not only Chepauk but cricketing grounds theworld over. Prominent among them are CR Rangachari, PK Belliappa, SVenkatraghavan, VV Kumar, AG Kripal Singh, AG Milkha Singh, CDGopinath, TE Srinivasan, Bharath Reddy, K Srikkanth, Robin Singh, VSivaramakrishnan, L Sivaramakrishnan, VB Chandasekhar, M Venkatramana,WV Raman, Sadagopan Ramesh, Hemang Badani and Dinesh Karthik.

It somehow seems fitting that a ground with such a hoary tradition and with such a hallowed turf has been witness to some of the great contests and outstanding feats in the game. India registered their first-ever victory in Test cricket here in February 1952 when they defeated England by an innings and eight runs. Thirty four years later, the drama and excitement of Tied Test II was enacted on this ground as Australia and India played out only the second tied Test in history. It was at Chepauk in December 1983 that Sunil Gavaskar got his 30th Test hundred to surpass the long standing record that was in Don Bradman's name. Again, it was here that Narendra Hirwani set a world record by taking 16 wickets for 136 runs on Test debut against the West Indies in January 1988. The highest score in ODIs - 194 - was compiled here by Saeed Anwar in the Independence Cup match against India in 1997 while Gundappa Viswanath's memorable unbeaten 97 against theWest Indies in January 1975 is acknowledged to be one of the finest knocks played by an Indian in Test cricket. Visiting players have graced Chepauk with some outstanding performances and one such most noted for its courage is Dean Jones' 210 in the heat and humidity of the cauldron that was the MA Chidambaram stadium during Tied Test II in September 1986.

The Chepauk crowd is among the most sporting and knowledgeable in thecricketing world. They appreciate good cricket irrespective of whichteam provides it and the crowning glory came when they gave a standingovation to the Pakistan team as they did their victory lap afterdefeating India by 12 runs in January 1999. Javed Miandad was moved tosay 'Salaam Chennai' in his column in homage to the sporting nature ofthe Chepauk cricket fans.

Chepauk is also noted for providing sporting wickets. There is alwayssomething in it for batsmen and bowlers. The fact that both fastbowlers and spin bowlers have done well on this ground is testimony tothe 'fifty-fifty' surfaces laid out by the ground staff. Notunexpectedly, Chepauk has provided more decisive results than any otherground in India. Another notable factor in Chepauk's favour is the TNCAadministration. Experienced officials ensure that the matches areorganized smoothly and players' comforts are looked into by a dedicatedand knowledgeable staff. The dynamic qualities of the pioneeringadministrators such as P Subbarayan, CR Pattabhiraman, KS Ranga Rao, SSriraman and S Annadorai cannot be over emphasized and the incumbentpresident N Srinivasan follows in this tradition. The media too havealways been happy with the highly professional arrangements at thisground.

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