KSCA Stadium
WITNESS TO 20 TEST MATCHES AND 23 ONE DAY INTERNATIONALS INCLUDING 7 WORLD CUP MATCHES
The stadium has comfortable seating and permanent seating is being added in phases.The M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore is the heartbeat of Karnataka cricket. Aficianados say Karnataka cricket came of age in the 1950s under the strong leadership of S A Srinivasan and M Chinnaswamy after whom the stadium is now named. From the small room in the Central College grounds where the Karnataka State Cricket Association was founded in 1933, it moved to the centre of Bangalore City, MG Road, earlier the plush South Parade, with the building of the magnificent stadium in 1974.
Initially named the KSCA Stadium, it was the venue for the debuts of two West Indian batting greats, Vivian Richards and Gordon Greenidge. It was ironic yet symbolic of the state’s prowess that one of its legends, B. S. Chandrasekhar dismissed Richards who failed to read his leg break-and-googly bowling. The Chinnaswamy Stadium maintained its position as a favourite ground among visiting players and officials, with its well managed infrastructure and optimal viewing facility for the players.
The building of the stadium ushered in a whole new era for the former royal state of Mysore which won its first premier crown, the Ranji Trophy domestic championship in India, in 1974. Since then, Karnataka has won the Trophy six times, the most by any state after Mumbai and Delhi, capping it with a famous fight back after pundits had ruled out the team in the cliff-hanger final here in 1999.
The Chinnaswamy Stadium has a seating capacity of 32,000, and offers state-of-the-art facilities for players and the Press, as well as the National Cricket Academy established by the Board of Control for Cricket in India. The KSCA has embarked on an ambitious plan of upgrading the existing facility by increasing the seating capacity to 70,000 for the benefit of visitors and its passionate cricket followers. Bangaloreans will have an example of matchless infrastructure.
Players Dressing Rooms
The stadium houses superb state-of-the-art dressing rooms for the comfort of the players.
Media Centre
The air-conditioned modern media centre enables the modern electronic and print media to effectively cover events while providing the utmost comfort. It is also situated at an ideal point affording a ‘bowler’s arm view’ and planned at a perfect height to enable capture the swift action across the panorama of the magnificent ground.
Commentary Box
The commentary box located just about the media center gives a bird’s eye view of the proceedings and is a fully equipped air-conditioned facility.
