Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium: A Cricket Landmark on the Brink of Demolition

Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, once a landmark venue in India’s cricketing journey and home to the country’s first floodlit international match, is now set for dismantling as part of plans to build a modern Sports City for India’s 2036 Olympics bid.

Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium A Cricket Landmark on the Brink of Demolition (Image Source: Google)

As per the latest news, the Sports Ministry has decided to dismantle the iconic Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi to construct a new Sports City as part of modernising India's sports infrastructure in support of its 2036 Olympics hosting bid. No timeline has been fixed for the start of construction, but a plan is in the pipeline.

This is the same Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium which was built for the 1982 Asian Games. For the 2010 Commonwealth Games, extensive redevelopment was done but its status as India’s most iconic multi-sport venue, with a capacity of 60000, was never in doubt. Although built exclusively for the athletics and football events as well as housing Sports Authority of India (SAI), slowly to raise funds, it was also used for the music concerts, fairs and holding Government functions.

It has almost been forgotten that this stadium has a significant place in the history of Indian cricket also, although originally it was never envisaged that the stadium shall be used for cricket, that too for the international matches.

That’s why with the demolition of Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium; Indian cricket is also losing one more historic stadium. Incidentally all the big matches played here have some historic links. The main reason for playing cricket here was flood lights, which other major cricket stadiums in India lacked, to play day-night cricket. This stadium, packed to its full capacity for the cricket under lights (although the lights installed here were not cricket friendly) was a spectacular sight.

Cricket was rapidly changing in the 1980s and 1990s, and day-night cricket matches began outside Australia as well. India joined the race thanks to this stadium, although setting was not perfect for cricket: ground being rectangular having a synthetic athletic track around it (to protect it, covers were placed which made running difficult for the fielders), lights not perfect for cricket, the large distance between the stands and the pitch, not having enough days to prepare the turf wicket etc. Two ODIs were played here:

1. India vs. Australia on September 28, 1984, Australia won by 48 runs. This was the first floodlit international cricket match held in India.

2. India vs. South Africa on November 14, 1991, South Africa won by 8 wickets. This tour marked South Africa’s return to international cricket and for the first time they played against India. The third and final ODI of the series was played here. This game also saw Sourav Ganguly, don the Indian jersey as he was on the field as a substitute.

After this, no further international cricket match was played here. However, the journey of day-night cricket in India started from here and the response it received led to the spree of installation of flood lights in other stadiums.

There are more memories of cricket here. Old timers still remember the memorable and explosive inning played by Kirti Azad in a benefit match, which was one of India's early floodlight exhibition cricket matches. It was played September 21, 1983, shortly after India's World Cup victory, between India XI and Pakistan XI in aid of the Prime Minister's Relief Fund and was played with all seriousness. The President of India Zail Singh was introduced to the team before the match.

Kirti Azad was the hero and scored 71* leading India XI to a thrilling one-wicket victory. He hit 7 sixes including three consecutives off Pakistani medium-pacer Jalaluddin. This match was like a dress rehearsal for playing India’s first day-night ODI here after a few months.

Chasing 198 for victory, at one time the hosts were at 101-7 and from here the two Delhi boys Madan Lal and Azad turned the game with a 86-run partnership in 57 minutes. In 'Runs 'n Ruins', Gavaskar mentioned this as 'Kirti's Bright Night' by writing about how the Indian team returned to champagne-filled celebrations at the hotel and how some teammates still had enough energy to move their feet at the hotel disco.

Before this duel, a trial match between Sunil Gavaskar's Bombay versus Kapil Dev's Rest of India was also played here on September 6, 1983. Ashok Mankad scored a fluent 84 off 108 balls in Bombay's total of 200 and celebrated his appointment as manager of the Indian team for the second half of the Pakistan series.

Some other matches played at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, New Delhi

February 16, 1984: Bishan Singh Bedi Benefit Match, Indian XI v World XI.

January 21, 1987: William Ghosh Benefit Match, Indian XI v Pakistan XI

September 30,1987: Reliance World Cup Warm-up, India v Pakistan

December 30, 2002: Doordarshan XI v Nomads Cricket Club. The 1893 village cricket match in India with the British rulers on the issue of Lagaan (as shown in the film Lagaan) is said to have inspired formation of the Nomads Cricket Club in England and the club team visited India to celebrate its centenary.