Know Your City: Nehru Stadium, the bygone colosseum of Pune which introduced the city to international cricket

For former Kenyan cricketer Aasif Karim, the team’s win against the two-time champions and three-time finalists West Indies is a tale for the grandchildren. In an interview with sports journalist Mohammad Isam in 2014, he said “We were playing West Indies, so we thought it would be nice to have some photographs for our memory. It would be good to play against them and hopefully one of us would get Brian Lara’s wicket and we could tell our grandsons that they lost to a team they had never heard of. We were in ecstasy; we couldn’t believe what had happened. I don’t think any player slept that night.”

Formerly called the Club of Maharashtra Ground, the stadium was built under the joint vision of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), the Town Hall Committee and The Club of Maharashtra. (Express Photo by Pavan Khengre)

Sandwiched between the hustle and bustle of Swargate and Sarasbagh, the Nehru Stadium was principally built with a desire to conduct International cricket matches in Pune city. Formerly called the Club of Maharashtra Ground, the stadium was built under the joint vision of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), the Town Hall Committee and The Club of Maharashtra. It has an audience capacity of 27,000 and was the home turf of the Maharashtra Cricket team, until 2012. The state team was relocated to the newly erected Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Gahunje, nestled between the hills of the Western Ghats on the outskirts of the city. On March 13, 1993, the main building of the stadium was named after the Grand Old Man of Indian Cricket D B Deodharand the North stand was named after wicketkeeper Nana Joshi.

The Bhumipujan ceremony took place on October 3, 1965 at the hands of the then Maharashtra chief minister Vasantrao Naik. The inauguration ceremony took place on October 20, 1969 in the presence of former captain of the Indian cricket team, Chandrakant Borde and the Australian cricket team’s Captain William Morris (Bill) Lawry.

Chandrakant Gulabrao Borde, Padma Bhushan awardee and former Indian cricket captain, said, “In the initial years, the Maharashtra Cricket Association had its office next to the ground. There was no stadium at the time. Later, the stadium was built and after its completion, it was inaugurated and I was part of the inauguration ceremony. The pitch at the Nehru Stadium is one of the best in the country, even today. There was a match played against the Australians and I remember scoring a century. The crowd was jam-packed and the Australian players were pleasantly surprised about the ground, particularly the pitch because the pitch had a bounce and the batsmen could play their shots very nicely.”

In its grandiose period, the Nehru Stadium has hosted several matches of the Ranji Trophy, the Duleep Trophy, the Irani Trophy and the Deodhar Trophy. The stadium saw its heyday when it held the first One Day International (ODI) between India and England in 1984. After that, it hosted 11 ODI matches, including two Cricket World Cups in 1987 and 1996 and four Women ODIs, to date. Now, several inter-club, inter-school and invitational cricket matches are played at Nehru Stadium.

Nehru Stadium’s heydays ceased to exist after first-class matches moved to other state stadiums under the Maharashtra Cricket Association and the grounds were ill-kept. (Express Photo by Pavan Khengre)

Professional cricketer Yogesh Vijay Takawale said that his journey in cricket started at the Nehru stadium and that every young cricketer on the ground had the ambition to get to play the state or national teams.

“I was eight when my father enrolled my brother in the cricket summer camp. We came from humble backgrounds but it was my father’s dream to have one of his sons in the Indian team. My brother got injured and I took his place to learn. I was groomed under the coaches there and played alongside some first-class Ranji players of the time. I also captained the U-19 at the Club of Maharashtra and daily, about 1,000 players practised on the grounds both in the mornings and evenings. Being in that atmosphere inculcated the urge among many of us to strive to better ourselves to make it to Ranji teams or better, represent the country,” he said.

Bharat Baburao Marwadi, a coach who has been operating his cricket academy from the stadium for over four decades, reflected on the Nehru Stadium that brought state-of-the-art facilities to locals. As per him, it is a great stadium which has seen a lot of matches, including international contests which have now ceased due to other stadia coming up near the city. “At Nehru Stadium, Puneites got the opportunity to watch almost all the Indian cricketers and several international cricketers play. Thankfully, several matches that were played here turned out to be memorable,” said Marwadi, 64.

Memorable games

In the 1996 ICC Cricket World Cup, which India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka jointly hosted, only one match — a lowkey match between the mighty West Indies and Kenya was played in Pune but it became one of the most talked about games of the tournament. It was the first ever ODI win of the Kenyan side, which consisted of a bunch of part-time players — salesmen, a dentist and a construction manager — who surprisingly beat the West Indies.

“After the game, they skipped around the ground like children who had been let out of school, brandishing their spoils of war – two sets of stumps – at that crowd that shared their delight,” reported The Times (London) a day after the match which is described as a “Breathless Hush”.

Another memorable game was from about a decade earlier, in March 1987, when India suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of arch rival Pakistan during the latter’s tour to India. “I remember the disappointment on Pune streets that day,” said Marwadi. Pakistanis led by Imran Khan had managed to bowl out India for a mere 120 runs (42 overs).

“’Harakiri’. That’s the only word to describe the approach of the Indian batsmen at the Nehru Stadium, here (in Pune) on Sunday,” The Indian Express reported the next day. “They neither showed discipline nor determination to surmount the initial problems to collapse in the ignominious fashion,” the report added. Another newspaper wrote, “That India suffered such humiliation in front of a capacity crowd of 25000 was due to their inept batting, which could not cope with the guile of the off spinner, Tausif Ahmed, and the accuracy of the medium-pacer Saleem Jaffer.”

“The grounds were still international level until about a few years ago but the two years of the pandemic water-downed the maintenance of the pitch,” said Rohit Thorve, Chairman of Club of Maharashtra.

A few years prior, on December 5, 1984, the first ever international cricket match was played at the stadium — a contest between India and England during the latter’s tour of India in the politically unstable time in the host country. On December 5, when the game was played in Pune, the results were much delight of the guests and to great dismay of the local spectators as they witnessed their favourite Indian cricketers being defeated by the British team by four wickets. The dismay was so great on the ground that as the defeat became imminent, the spectators became unruly.

“When England were seven runs short of success, with 20 balls left, the first bottles sailed over the high wire fences into the field. It made it impossible for Binny to remain at long leg. The police presence seemed to increase the bottle-throwing and in the end, they withdrew and left ground staff workers to pick up the bottles. Finally, the play was able to resume and England quickly won as police moved into the public enclosures in force. It was not a malicious riot as these things go, but seemed to be caused by a few hooligans, who were quickly copied by those sitting near them. It clearly arose from the disappointment at India’s defeat. Certainly, it was not aimed at England players. Gatting, in particular, had been frequently applauded during his innings,” The Times’ correspondent Richard Streeton wrote in the next morning’s paper.

“It was an experience that the Kenyans would never forget. It was a memory made at the stadium for a lifetime when they had defeated the world champions West Indies. The stadium was excellent in our time and has seen several notable national and international cricketers play on the ground,” said Nitin Samal, current assistant coach for the U-16 state team.

Out of limelight

However, the Nehru Stadium’s heydays ceased to exist after first-class matches moved to other state stadiums under the Maharashtra Cricket Association and the grounds were ill-kept. “The grounds were still international level until about a few years ago but the two years of the pandemic water-downed the maintenance of the pitch. It is depreciating and we are taking efforts to refurbish the place so that at the least, state and district level matches could be held here,” said Rohit Thorve, Chairman of Club of Maharashtra.

Samal further added that with the rightful direction from the PMC, the grounds are the perfect turf for creating a conducive environment for cricket culture in the city. “The stadium was optimal for anyone in the city who had a dream to become a cricketer and it facilitated that well. While the stadium in Gahunje is class apart and rightfully so, the Nehru Stadium can be where young talent can be groomed into future players. Not every young cricket player would be able to go all the way outside of the city for training,” he said.

Borde reminisced that he played many of his best games at the Nehru Stadium cricket grounds which, according to him, has one of the best cricket pitches in the country. “I faintly recall the Ranji match against Bengal and I was the captain of the Maharashtra team. We played very well and I scored a double century on the same pitch. The pitch is beautiful and the ground was excellent for cricket with the many first-class cricket matches played there,” he added.

“I am what I am because of Nehru Stadium. Under president Balasaheb Thorve, from 2002-2005, there were two ODIs and one WODI. We got to witness the preparations that went behind the international tournaments and it was a proud moment for a small district like Pune to hold such big matches. Apart from watching the matches, one of my fondest memories was that the players at Nehru Stadium got to practice with the Indian team, to watch names like Tendulkar, Ganguly and Anil Kumble in such close space. I hope that I get to play on the grounds, maybe not professionally, to end my career on the same grounds I started at. I cannot forget the relationship I have with it,” said Takawale.