Brief profile of Marina stadium by Cricket Archive staff reporter

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Ground:

Marina Stadium, Madras

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DateLine: 15th February 2007

 

History and beauty. That’s what the Marina ground is all about. For years it was the venue that hosted most number of matches at all levels - inter schools finals, collegiate cricket, representative and senior division league matches, Buchi Babu games, women’s cricket and even a couple of Ranji Trophy encounters. It was also the venue to watch the game centrally located as it is in Triplicane, on the Marina beach where the soft breeze that wafted across the ground made cricketing watching such a pleasure. Almost any match attracted huge crowds. The pavilion was a bit of an eyesore but such was the ambience that none of the players seemed to mind. Polly Umrigar and Bapu Nadkarni, Sunil Gavaskar and Ashok Mankad, Ramakant Desai and Brijesh Patel are among the prominent outstation players who have graced the venue besides of course all the local giants from MJ Gopalan to L Sivaramakrishnan. In the nineties it fell on bad days and became an unkempt ground full of shrubs and weeds. In the new millennium however the Simpsons group took it over, have tended to the pitch and the outfield most caringly and given it a brand new look. It is now ready for a fresh innings after the first match was played on the new turf in January 2007.