The cricket craze of Triplicane and most of Chennai is to be seen to be believed. When was the last time, you saw a Cricket match on the ground ?
Ages ago – may be it was 1976 or 1978 – in the evening went to Marina ground – there were at least 2500 – 3000 spectators – a left arm spinner was bowling in a Buchi babu match between Mafatlal and SBI team .. .. the man clad in dhoti standing next to me identified him to be Dhiraj Parsana !!
Those days of no internet, no coverage on television and very few photos in newspapers – great so many were able to identify even obscure cricketers. I frequented Marina match seeing First division league as also tournament like Buchi Babu – on another day saw a lad steaming in and bowling really fast – identified as Rajamannar !!
Chepauk / Marina / University Union grounds attracted crowds – there were the fathers taking their sons for direct visualization; some who come to have a close look at the established players [remember those were the days of no mobile / no photo / no selfie / no social media!] – then there were the knowledgeable crowd who understood nuances and discussed about the strategy and matches of Palayampatti shield. Slowly those days changed for the worse ! in recent decade, we see and read of Ranji trophy matches being played before empty stands.
For Ranji – even school boys would come and watch for a couple of hours before getting slyly back to school class room … BCCI trying to organize matches in neutral venues trying to nullify home advantage too was a reason for dwindling crowds.
Read this : It was an emotive
Series that started at Chepauk in Feb 1987. Pak played first, immediately
lost Rizwan Uz Zaman to Raju Kulkarni; Shoaib Mohammad made a century; Miandad
made 94 and helped by an unbeaten 135 by Imran, Pakistan made
487 for 9 declared and when play ended on 4th Feb 1987, the second day, Indians
were 15 without loss with Srikkanth unbeaten on 5.
5th was a rest day and 6th started with great expectation for Chennai fans ~ all roads led to MA Chidambaram stadium and there was the mad scramble for tickets, milling crowds waiting impatiently at the ticket counters – there were heads everywhere – people occupying all vantage points to have a glimpse of Krish Srikkanth playing the pace of Imran Khan; there was Wasim Akram, guily Abdul Qadir and Tausef ahamed to reckon. It was breath-taking assault as Srikkanth, cut, pulled and played with gay abandon to reach his maiden century in front of his home ground with all present cheering merrily. He finally got out to Tauseef making 123 with 18 fours and 2 sixers. Gavaskar, Mohinder, Vengsarkar all made runs too as Indians declared at 527 for 9. If I remember aright, there was successive 4 and 6 off Imran that delighted the crowd. The match meandered to a draw and the Man of the Match was shared by Imran and Srikkanth. Have not seen such crowds for long !!
In
recent times for domestic tournaments of longer duration the stands have been largely empty at Chepauk
and at most centers. Cricketers miss spectator backing because when two
non-local teams are playing, locals don’t have any interest in the match and
big names skip local tournaments.
Today
6.9.2026 is different at Chepauk – finals of Duleep trophy between East Zone
and South Zone .. .. an hour or so
before the start – the stands C,D & E were fast filling up !. TNCA
had opened for free these three stands but seeing thousands of people turning
up, an immediate good decision was taken to open up more stands. According to media reports close to 15000
spectators, many of them in CSK yellowee came to watch the match
Reason : the 15 year old phenomenon called Vaibhav Sooryavanshi who we have seen hitting lofty sixers in IPL and for India too !!
At Chepauk on day 1 East Zone finished at a commanding 385/4 with
Ishan Kishan unbeaten on 111 and Kumar Kushagra unbeaten on 63. Earlier the run machine Abhimanyu Easwaran
made 72; Shikhar Mohan made 85 .. .. and the little lad for whom such large
crowds turned up did not disappoing making a breezy 44 – he made some
attractive strokes, picking Siraj for a sequence of 4,6,4 and playing a classy
knock.
Interesting !
Regards – S Sampathkumar
6.9.2026
Pic of Crowds at Chepauk – Espn Cric info; Vaibhav - BCCI
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