Cricket fever in Indore dates back to Holkar era

Indore, Apr 13 (UNI) Madhya Pradesh's commercial capital hosted its first one-day international encounter on December 1, 1983, under the aegis of the Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association, and the April 15 India-England face-off at the Usha Raje Stadium will be the tenth match.

The cricket tradition has been continuing unhindered in Ahilya Devi's town since the Holkar era. Col Cottari Kanakaiya Nayudu, Maj Balasaheb Jagdale, Capt Mushtaq Ali, Chandu Sarwate, Heeralal Gaekwad, Narendra Hirwani and Amay Khurasia made Indore proud in national cricket.

Besides these glowing signatures, master blaster Sachin Tendulkar acquired the magic figure of 10,000 ODI runs here on March 31, 2001.

The city hosted the Australia-New Zealand Reliance World Cup encounter in 1987, the Hero Cup (1993), the Titan Cup (1996) and the infamous India-Sri Lanka match on Christmas Day, 1997.

That encounter was cancelled courtesy a bad pitch after the visitors scored 17 runs for the loss of a wicket in 3.1 overs and an exhibition match followed to cool spectators' wrath.

Apart from Tendulkar's milestone, Indore has not proved lucky for the home team. At the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, India lost three encounters and won two. The Hero Cup match with Zimbabwe was a tie.

In other encounters, the Kangaroos and Proteas notched a victory each.

On December 1, 1983, cricket's popularity was at its peak as India won the World Cup that very year. The West Indies team, smarting the World Cup final loss, descended avalanche-like on the Indians in a match here on that day.

In reply to the home team's 240/7 in 47 overs, Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes sliced up the Indian bowling by scoring 241 in 45.2 overs with eight wickets to spare. Greenidge (96) was declared man of the match.

More UNI XC-AC PDS HS2129