October 7, 2007

India vs Australia 4th ODI: Chandigarh, as an ODI venue after 14 years

After 14 years Chandigarh is flattering the venue of 4th ODI match of the seven matches’ ongoing series of Inida vs Australia. The last match played in this stadium was between India and England on Jan 21, 1993. The stadium has so far hosted four ODIs and one Test match (1990 between India and Sri Lanka) and numerous first-class matches. Although some pioneers like Kapil Dev, Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan Singh are from this providence but the field was not selected as avenue for any ODI venue this long time.

It was after the neighboring Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) built a world-class stadium at Mohali, 10 km from here, that this stadium fell out of favour with the authorities.

For almost a decade, the stadium was not even allotted a first-class match and the ground with the stands, cried for maintenance during this period.

It was only in 2006 that the ground again came into the good books of the authorities with the hosting of two practice matches involving Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and the West Indies in October.

The ground hosted its first one-dayer in January 1985, when England beat India by seven runs in the fifth one-dayer. The two teams faced each other in the last match that was played in the ground with India beating the English team by just three runs on 21 January 1993. India have won two out of the three matches that they have played so far in the stadium.

I was looking for why sector 16 stadium did not seleced for the ODI or Test venue long time.