Eden Gardens is a cricket ground in Kolkata, India established in 1864. It is the home venue of the Bengal cricket team and the IPL franchise cricket team Kolkata Knight Riders, and is also a venue for Test, ODI and T20I matches of the India national cricket team. Between 1987 and 2011, Eden Gardens had a seating capacity of 94,000. The stadium currently has a capacity of 68,000 and is the largest cricket stadium in India and the second-largest cricket stadium in the world.
Eden Gardens is often regarded informally as India's home of cricket. The ground has been referred to as "cricket's answer to the Colosseum," and is widely acknowledged to be one of the most iconic cricket stadiums in the world. Eden Gardens has hosted matches in major international competitions including the World Cup, World Twenty20 and Asia Cup. In 1987, Eden Gardens became the second stadium to host a World Cup final. The 2016 ICC World Twenty20 final was held at the Eden Gardens where the West Indies beat England in closely fought encounter.
Eden Gardens has also occasionally been used for Association football matches. Through 2017, it has hosted the highest number of International matches in India - 82 that includes 40 Test matches, 31 ODIs and 6 T20Is, 4 Women ODIs and 1 Women T20I.
Video Eden Gardens
Stadium History
The stadium was established in 1864. The stadium gets its name from the Eden Gardens, one of the oldest parks in Kolkata, adjacent to the stadium, designed in 1841 and named after the Eden sisters of Lord Auckland, the then Governor-General of India. Initially it was named 'Auckland Circus Gardens' but later changed to 'Eden Gardens' by its makers inspired by Garden of Eden in the Bible. The cricket grounds were built between Babughat and Fort William. The stadium is in the B. B. D. Bagh area of the city, near the State Secretariat and opposite to the Calcutta High Court.
The first recorded Test at the venue was held in 1934 between England and India, its first One Day International in 1987 between India and Pakistan and its first T20 international in 2011 between India and England. The Hero Cup semi final featuring India and South Africa was the first Day/Night match. The match recorded 145,367 considered as the biggest attendance for any sports event which held in India.
Maps Eden Gardens
Stadium
The Stadium is the headquarters of the Cricket Association of Bengal. Apart from International matches, the stadium hosts matches for domestic Indian cricket and is the home venue for Kolkata Knight Riders. The stadium's Club House is named after former Chief Minister of West Bengal Dr. B. C. Roy.
The stadium's seating capacity has changed in the last 3 decades. The stadium has a current seating capacity of 63,000 people.
1987 Renovation
Before the 1987 World Cup, the stadium had a capacity of 40,000. It was expanded to 94,000. Renovations included changes to press box, club house and television infrastructure. 42 columns provided the support for large roofs and multi-tiered covered stands. Even after the renovation, not all seats were covered and many sections lacked individual seats.
However, match day attendance of more than 100,000 spectators have been recorded on at least 6 occasions.
2011 Renovation
Eden Gardens underwent renovation for the 2011 Cricket World Cup. Renovation had been undertaken to meet the standards set by the International Cricket Council (ICC) for the 2011 World Cup. The Cricket Association of Bengal retained the team of Burt Hill and VMS to renovate the Eden Gardens Cricket Stadium. The plans for the renovated stadium included a new clubhouse and players' facilities, upgrades of the exterior walls to give the stadium a new look, cladding the existing roof structure with a new metal skin, new/upgraded patron amenities & signage and general infrastructure improvements. The upgrade also meant reduction of the seating capacity to about 68,000 from around 100,000 before the upgrade.
Due to unsafe conditions arising from the incomplete renovations, the ICC withdrew the India vs. England match from the Eden Gardens. This match, scheduled on 27 February 2011, was played in Bengaluru at M.Chinnaswamy Stadium.
The stadium hosted the remaining three scheduled World Cup 2011 Matches on 15, 18 and 20 March 2011. In the last of these three matches (Kenya vs Zimbabwe), the stadium had the minimal ticket-purchasing crowd in its recorded history with 15 spectators having bought tickets.
Stands
Eden Gardens stands have been named after prominent local cricketers and soldiers. On January 22, 2017, 2 stands were named after Indian cricketers - Sourav Ganguly and Pankaj Roy while 2 more were after cricket administrators - BN Dutt (BCCI President 1988-1990) and Jagmohan Dalmiya (BCCI President 2001-04, 2013 - interim, 2015). Dalmiya served as ICC President from 1997 to 2000.
On 27 April 2017, 4 stands were named after Indian soldiers - Colonel Neelakantan Jayachandran Nair, Havildar Hangpan Dada, Lieutenant Colonel Dhan Singh Thapa and Subedar Joginder Singh Sahnan. LC Thapa and Subedar Singh are Param Vir Chakra awardees - the highest wartime military military decoration in India while Col Nair and Havildar Dada are Ashok Chakra - the highest peace time military decoration.
Experience
Eden Gardens is renowned for its large and vociferous crowds. Former Aussie captain Steve Waugh considers the Eden Gardens as 'Lord's of the subcontinent'. Dileep Vengsarkar called Eden Gardens as the second best after Lords. Former Indian Captain and Kolkata Native Sourav Ganguly confessed once in an interview that the roar of crowd at the stadium he heard when India defeated Australia in the Second Test of 2000-01 Border-Gavaskar Trophy was the most loud he had ever heard.
In 2006, a bell was added to the stadium to ring in the start of day's play for test cricket and start of match for ODI & T20I matches. Kapil Dev was the first person to ring the bell to start the test match between India and New Zealand in September 2016.
Cricket World Cup matches
Eden Gardens has hosted 15 Cricket World Cup matches hosted in India across formats and men's and women's cricket. Eden Gardens has hosted 6 Cricket World Cup matches in 1987 (2), 1996 (1), 2011 (3). The stadium hosted 5 T20I matches during 2016 ICC World Twenty20. The stadium hosted 2 Women's Cricket World Cup matches - one each in 1978 and 1997 and one Women T20I match during the 2016 ICC Women's World Twenty20 tournament.
Due to Eden Garden's iconic status, it has hosted 4 finals (1987 ODI CWC, 2016 T20I, 1997 Women's CWC and 2016 Women's T20I) and 1 semifinal (1996 ODI CWC).
1987 ICC Cricket World Cup
1996 ICC Cricket World Cup
2011 ICC Cricket World Cup
Eden Gardens was meant to host a Group B Match between India and England on 27 February 2011. The ICC, however, stripped the stadium of the match after deciding that the renovation of the grounds would not be completed in time.
2016 ICC World Twenty20
1978 ICC Women's Cricket World Cup
1997 ICC Women's Cricket World Cup
2016 ICC Women's World Twenty20
Notable events
- In 1946, an in-form Mushtaq Ali was dropped from the Indian team selected to play an unofficial test against Australian Services XI. Following crowd protests (with slogans like "No Mushtaq, No Test"), the selectors brought him back to play.
- Rioting occurred at the ground during the 1966/67 West Indies and 1969/70 Australian tours.
- In 1977, New York Cosmos played a Football match against Mohun Bagan at the stadium. Pelé played in that match for the Cosmos. The match was drawn at 2-2.
- 16 football fans died in a stampede after a derby league game between East Bengal and Mohun Bagan on 16 August 1980.
- Hosted the memorable World Cup final of 1987 which ended with Australia defeating England by 7 runs.
- The 1996 World Cup semi-final was called off and Sri Lanka awarded the match after crowd disturbances following an Indian batting collapse.
- During the 2nd final of the 1997 Pepsi Independence Cup, the Test and ODI captains of the Indian cricket team of all time (with a few notable exceptions) were given a lap of honour around the stadium.
- In 1999, leading Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar was run out after colliding with Pakistan's Shoaib Akhtar. Akhtar had impeded Tendulkar and the crowd rioted, forcing the police to evict the spectators. The match continued in front of an empty stadium.
- Kapil Dev took an ODI hat-trick against the Sri Lankans in 1991 at the ground.
- Harbhajan Singh took a hat-trick against Australia in 2000/01 at the ground. He became the first Indian to take a hat-trick in Test cricket.
- In 2000/01, V.V.S. Laxman scored 281 against Australia in the Second Test, 2000-01 Border-Gavaskar Trophy. This remains the highest score at the ground. He was involved in a memorable 376 runs partnership with Rahul Dravid who scored 180. They batted through the whole Day 4 of the test match without losing their wickets. Australia were defeated despite enforcing India to follow-on. It was only the third time in Test history that a team had won after being forced to follow on. It is widely considered to be one of the greatest Test matches in cricket history.
- In 2005, in an ODI against South Africa, Eden Gardens crowd booed the Indian team and Greg Chappell because of Sourav Ganguly's dropping from the team. Chappell allegedly showed middle finger to the crowd.
- Eden Gardens hosted the historic 199th (penultimate) Test match of Sachin Tendulkar's career against West Indies from 6-10 Nov 2013. India defeated West Indies by an innings and 51 runs in 3 days.
- On its 150th anniversary, on 13 November 2014, Eden Gardens witnessed the highest ever score by a batsman in One Day Internationals, a 264 off 173 balls scored by Rohit Sharma during the 4th One Day International of Sri Lanka vs India at the venue.
- On 3 April 2016, in this venue, within a span of hours, the finals of the ICC world cup Twenty20 tournaments for the women and for the men were won by the respective women's and men's teams of the West Indies.
- The stadium hosted the 200th and 250th home tests for India in 2005 and 2016 respectively.
- On January 22, 2017, Ravindra Jadeja became the first Indian left arm spinner to take 150 One Day International wickets, when he dismissed Sam Billings.
- On September 21, 2017, Kuldeep Yadav became the third bowler for India to take a hat-trick in an ODI after Chetan Sharma and Kapil Dev. When he took a hatrick against Australia.
Records
- The most runs in Test Matches played here are scored by V.V.S. Laxman (1217 runs), followed by Rahul Dravid (962 runs) and Sachin Tendulkar (872 runs). The most wickets taken here was by Harbhajan Singh (46 wickets) followed by Anil Kumble (40 wickets) and Bishen Singh Bedi (29 wickets).
- The most runs in ODIs scored here by a batsman is by Sachin Tendulkar (496 runs), followed by Mohammed Azharuddin (332 runs) and Aravinda de Silva (306 runs). The most wickets taken here is by Anil Kumble and Kapil Dev (14 wickets each), followed by Ravindra Jadeja (9 wickets).
- VVS Laxman and Mohammed Azharuddin have scored 5 centuries each at this venue.
- The highest ever ODI individual score of 264 is made by Rohit Sharma on this ground against Sri Lanka in 2014.
- On September 21, 2017, Kuldeep Yadav became the third bowler for India to take a hat-trick in an ODI after Chetan Sharma and Kapil Dev. When he took a hatrick against Australia.
See also
- List of international cricket centuries at Eden Gardens
- List of stadiums by capacity
References
External links
Kolkata/Maidan travel guide from Wikivoyage
- Eden Gardens Cricket Stadium Kolkata, India - Eden Gardens Cricket Stadium Seating Layout
- CricketArchive statistics for Eden gardens
- IPL-5 Matches at Eden Gardens - IPL 2012 Matches at Eden Gardens
Source of article : Wikipedia
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