Mumbai: Mumbai’s iconic Wankhede stadium has just hit 50. In 35 of 50 years, Vasant Mohite, the stadium’s oldest groundsman, has watched over the pitch from close quarters.
For Mohite, meeting star cricketers, interacting with them and watching them play has been a routine, day-to-day affair. He talks about his work, which includes maintaining the dressing rooms and taking care of players’ personal belongings, with the banality of a clerk in a 9-5 job.
However, his eyes light up while talking about his favourite moment in his 35-year-long service. “It’s when Dhoni hit that legendary six in the 2011 World Cup—that landed right there,” Mohite says, turning around and pointing to the spot where the ball hit the ground, becoming a defining moment for India in its championship win.
M.S. Dhoni’s six is just one of the many memories the Wankhede stadium has helped create in Indian cricket. As the ground celebrates its golden jubilee, players from Sunil Gavaskar to Sachin Tendulkar to Prithvi Shaw are reminiscing about their favourite memories.
The Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) has planned a grand celebration commemorating all such iconic moments since the start of the first test match at the stadium on 23 January 1975.
The first match itself is unforgettable in more than one way. India lost to West Indies by 201 runs as Clive Lloyd hit an unbeaten 242. An unruly fan reached the ground to meet Lloyd even as the police tried to stop him. It was also Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi’s final game before being dropped from the Indian team in 1975.
The MCA will release a coffee table book and a stamp and, at an event planned at the stadium on Sunday, felicitate all the players from Mumbai—who have made a mark in Indian cricket. Earlier this week, it celebrated all the groundsmen, popularly known as “mamas (mother’s brother)”, across Mumbai’s stadia.
During the week in the run-up to the 50th anniversary, the MCA also organised two unusual games at the stadium. One, where Maharashtra’s bureaucrats took on the consul generals of Commonwealth nations posted in Mumbai, and another where sports journalists clashed with MCA functionaries. The IAS officers and MCA functionaries triumphed.
“All major events in India’s cricketing history have taken place at Wankhede stadium,” Ajinkya Naik, president of the Mumbai Cricket Association, said, speaking to ThePrint.
“If you see the history of Wankhede stadium, when India won the 1983 World Cup, the Indian team came to Wankhede for photographs. In 2007—under the leadership of M.S. Dhoni—when India won the T20 World Cup, the Indian team came here. In 2011, we won the World Cup against Sri Lanka at the Wankhede stadium. In 2024, when we won the T20 World Cup again, when Suryakumar Yadav took the catch, the team came to Wankhede for felicitation,” he said.
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Wankhede then and now
From 14 to 16 November 2013, Sachin Tendulkar played his final match before retirement at Mumbai’s Wankhede stadium, ending his 24-year-long, rich cricketing career at the venue, as fans went wild, cheering, clapping and even crying.
“From the time I was small till my retirement, the stadium has given me some incredible moments. Some of my life’s best moments have been given to me by Wankhede. Now is the time to celebrate Wankhede stadium,” Tendulkar said in a video shared by MCA on its Instagram page.
Built in 1974, Wankhede stadium was the third in Mumbai after the Bombay Gymkhana ground and the Brabourne stadium.
The Bombay Gymkhana hosted the first-ever test match played in India in 1933-34 against England.
The Wankhede stadium came to life as a result of a feud between the Cricket Club of India (CCI) and the then Bombay Cricket Association (BCA) over ticket distribution for an international game. It was named after BCA’s then-president, Sheshrao Wankhede. The first match played at the stadium was for the Ranjhi trophy.
On Wednesday, the MCA felicitated eight surviving members of the Mumbai team who were part of this first match—Sunil Gavaskar, Karsan Ghavri, Padmakar Shivalkar, Farokh Engineer, Ajit Pai, Milind Rege, Abdul Ismail and Rakesh Tandon. The players were awarded Rs 10 lakh each.
In a video posted by the MCA on its Instagram page, Gavaskar said, “I remember playing the first match at the Wankhede stadium, and it was not even totally complete. It was a real green pitch. The outfield wasn’t as smooth as it is today. So now to see this new Wankhede stadium with all the new stands, it really is a terrific feeling, wonderful feeling.”
Naik said the Wankhede stadium, which has evolved over its 50 years, went through two rounds of a major overhaul—once in 2011 and again in 2023.
“In 2011, Mr. Sharad Pawar sir decided to refurbish Wankhede stadium. That was a major change. After that, we did it in 2023 during the World Cup. We upgraded facilities like toilets, hospitality boxes and stand areas. These were the major occasions where the stadium underwent an uplift,” Naik said.
The 2011 overhaul involved slightly reducing the stadium’s total capacity while adding 72 private boxes. One of the highlights of the renovated stadium was the addition of a suspended cantilever roof. The roof has no columns, allowing an unhindered view of the game, and letting the breeze flow through the stadium. The Teflon fabric of the roof is said to be heat resistant.
In 2023, while the stadium underwent another round of improvements, the MCA also created a new stand to mark a special memory at Wankhede—the ‘World Cup 2011 Victory Memorial Stand’—covering the two seats near which the ball from Dhoni’s standout six landed. The MCA earlier that year also announced that it would auction these two seats and use the funds for emerging cricketers.
50 years, many memories
Mumbai’s cricket has seen politicians across hues coming together to jointly contest the cricketing body’s elections, attend the MCA’s functions and watch matches at Wankhede.
The stadium has, however, seen a fair few political controversies too. In October 1991, the then undivided Shiv Sena, under Bal Thackeray’s leadership, dug up the pitch at Wankhede stadium to prevent India from playing a match with Pakistan.
Then, in 2012, actor Shah Rukh Khan was banned from entering the MCA premises, including the Wankhede stadium, for five years following a scuffle the actor had with the stadium’s security and staff during an Indian Premier League match of the Kolkata Knight Riders. The ban was lifted three years later.
While these events can never be disassociated from the stadium while talking about its history, it is the highs and lows of cricket that those associated with Wankhede like to remember the most.
It is where Sachin Tendulkar played the role of a ball boy in the 1987 World Cup semi-final that India lost to England. He went on to have a stand in his name, complete with a statue. It is the place where Vinod Kambli made jaws drop with a stellar 224 runs against England in 1993 and where Ajaz Patel of New Zealand took all ten wickets in an innings in 2021, making it only the third such feat in the history of Test cricket.
“In all my years here, I have two favourite moments. One is from the 2011 World Cup when Dhoni hit a six, and last year when we won the World Cup trophy, and there was a felicitation parade, which culminated here. The ground has a capacity of 33,000. But at the time, the ground had double the number of people. And an equivalent number were cheering outside the stadium,” Dhanaji Sontakke, who has been working with the MCA doing all sorts of odd jobs in the office, said.
Sontakke, originally from Maharashtra’s Dharashiv district (formerly Osmanabad) joined the MCA about 15 years ago.
“I used to watch cricket a lot when I was a child. I used to listen to commentary on the radio. I had never thought I would see all of this so closely in my life,” he added.
Over the past week, the MCA has shared the nostalgia and memories of several cricketers related to Wankhede on its social media handles.
Ajinkya Rahane spoke about how he used to see the Wankhede stadium every time he would travel to Churchgate by train and long for the day he gets to play there.
Rohit Sharma reminisced about how it was at Wankhede that he started playing age-group cricket matches, while Prithvi Shaw spoke about watching the 2011 World Cup final with Arjun Tendulkar in awe.
“I was very young at that time. My friend Arjun Tendulkar and I were sitting here and watching that game live. I was 11 years old at that time. As a kid, we always dreamed about playing in this stadium, and that came true,” he said.
Naik, who now sits in the MCA president’s chair, taking all the key decisions related to the stadium, remembers his first Wankhede memory—one he will never forget—involving a personal defeat.
“I played cricket during my school days. My first visit here was for the Mumbai team selection. I didn’t get selected. In reality, I just wanted to see the ground and get a feel of it,” Naik said.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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