Mumbai: Azad Maidan has hosted many of India’s legendary cricketers for their first tournaments as well as some of their record-breaking partnerships, giving Mumbai an identity as the city of cricket. As the need for open spaces to facilitate various developmental, social and political purposes has increased, its oldest playground has been shrinking one pitch at a time.

The triangular Azad Maidan was a hub for the Civil Disobedience Movement, when around two lakh people joined to greet Mahatma Gandhi. However, the ground has been more popular for launching cricketers like Sachin Tendulkar, Vinod Kambli and others.

The 25-acre maidan has been distributed among 22 sports clubs, which have one pitch each. Since 2015, 16 plots, belonging to John Bright Cricket Club, Muslim United, Young Mohammedan and St Xaviers’, among others, have been handed over to the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limited for the construction of the underground corridor for Metro 3. While MMRCL had promised to hand over the ground and pitches after restoration by June 2024, the process is still nowhere close to being completed.

One of the remaining six plots has been handed over to Mumbai Police for their parade practice, one ground is appropriate only for children. This leaves Mumbai’s cricket enthusiasts with only four grounds that are fit to host a professional tournaments. These comprise Sassanian Cricket Club, Elphinstone Cricket Club, New Era and Hindustan Construction. Several political parties have also been permitted by PWD officials to build permanent offices on the ground.

“In the early 1990s, I had fought to evict illegal hawkers and slums which had encroached upon the playground, restricting cricket activities,” said Nadeem Memon, cricket secretary of the Mumbai School Sports Association. “We could successfully push out the illegal encroachment but are unable to do anything about the legal encroachment. Players have to go as far as Navi Mumbai and Vasai-Virar to play interschool matches.”

Azad Maidan has always hosted sports and civil protests, which flourished in the city alongside each other. After the metro construction work occupied a large part of the ground, including the protest site in front of the BMC headquarters, protestors were diverted to Fort Vijay Cricket Club, a 115-year-old club represented by renowned cricketer Vijay Merchant.

Jayant Jhaveri, secretary of Fort Vijay Cricket Club, said, “We opposed the decision to allow protests on our playground but that resulted in our field being concretised. Since 2017, we have not played any match on our ground and have to depend on the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) for a substitute ground. This has also affected players’ performance. We are not able to form good teams due to this setback.”

While the maidan has also been hosting a few Ramlila performances and the annual Sunni Ijtema on a regular basis, the frequency of such non-sporting events has increased in recent times. Mega marathon events and political rallies have hindered sports activities. The recent swearing-in ceremony of the Mahayuti government was also organised at Azad Maidan.

Several religious functions are also held here, and have caused a lot of damage.

“When we ask for permission to upgrade something, the authorities deny the request citing the heritage status of the ground. At the same time, [organisers of] non-sporting activities are allowed to dig up the ground to set up huge pandals for multiple days. In some of these events, they have also broken the fencing of the ground. While setting up the pandals their trucks run over our pitches which hurts like they are running over our hearts,” said Memon.

These surprise events pause the game for a few days as the permission given to the organisers to set up their pandals starts two days before and ends two days after the actual event. This results in postponement of multiple tournaments as well as affecting the playing field, which is known for hosting various prestigious tournaments including the Harris Shield and the Giles Shield.

Manik Madkaikar, a cricket coach associated with MCA, said, “The number of non-sport events in Azad Maidan has increased in the last year. Such events cause irreparable loss to the field and a lot of things go for a toss. Groundsmen work tirelessly to level the field and everything is ruined with one event. These mega marathon events earn crores of rupees in profit, but this money is never spent on betterment of the ground.”

“Days when events are organised on the maidan, they become no-play days for us. Irregular matches and uneven ground affects our performance in tournaments, where we aspire to perform well. The effect of this is suffered mostly by schoolchildren who cannot participate in interschool tournaments as the postponement collides with their examinations,” said Vineet Kumar, a young cricketer.