Wankhede Stadium

Ground information

Location    Mumbai
Establishment    1974
Capacity    45000
Owner    Mumbai Cricket Association
Architect    Shashi Prabhu and Associates
Contractor    B.E. Billimoria and Company
Operator    Mumbai Cricket Association
Tenants    Mumbai cricket team
Mumbai Indians

End names

Garware Pavilion End
Tata End1

International information

First Test    23 Jan - 29 Jan 1975: India v West Indies
Last Test    18 March - 22 March 2006: India v England
First ODI    17 Jan 1987: India v Sri Lanka
Last ODI    17 Oct 2007: India v Australia

About

The Wankhede Stadium(Marathi:सेशराव कृष्णराव वानखेडे मैदान) is a cricket stadium in the Indian city of Mumbai. This ground was built after disputes between the Cricket Club of India, which owns the Brabourne Stadium, and the Mumbai Cricket Association over the allocation of tickets for cricket matches.[citation needed] This became severe after the Test between India and England in 1973. At the initiative of S. K. Wankhede, a politician and the secretary of the Mumbai Cricket Association, MCA built the new stadium in South Mumbai near the Churchgate station. It was built in six months and opened in time for the final Test between India and the West Indies in 1975. Since then the Wankhade stadium has taken over from Brabourne Stadium as the main cricketing venue in the city. The stadium has a capacity of 45,000 and is always in contention to host an international match in India.
The stadium has been witness to great innings like Gavaskar's 205 against the Windies and Kallicharran's 187 in the same game in the 1978-79 series and all round heroics like Ian Botham's century and thirteen wickets in the Jubilee Test in 1980. which England won by ten wickets. The highest score by an Indian at Wankhede remains Vinod Kambli's 224 against England in 1992-93 in only his third Test. Incidentally Ravi Shastri's six sixes in an over off Baroda's Tilak Raj en route to the fastest double-hundred in first-class cricket was on this ground in 1984-85.
The cricket pitch is known to offer assistance to bowlers and is largely a spinner and pace friendly track. It offers spin and bounce to spin bowlers and swing to fast bowlers during the early part of each day due to the ground being close to sea.On days four and five of a test the pitch does tend to break up a fair bit which in turn offers great assistance to spinners. In 1995 the stadium was upgraded and lights were added to host day and night games. Later, in 1996 it hosted an India-Australia match in the 1996 Cricket World Cup.

The main gates to the ground are named after Polly Umrigar and Vinoo Mankad. The stands are named after famous Mumbai cricketers like Vijay Merchant (West stand), Sunil Gavaskar (East stand upper) and Sachin Tendulkar (North stand).