Situated in the heart of Kolkata in India, the Eden Gardens is a renowned cricket ground. The ground is also home of the Kolkata Knight Riders, the IPL (Indian Premier League) team and the Bengal cricket team. The famous test cricket and one-day international ground can accommodate 90,000 spectators at a time and is owned by the Indian Army.
India’s biggest cricket stadium came into being in 1865 and had a capacity to hold 120,000 spectators at that time. Later, the ground was renovated to its current capacity but still remains one of the biggest cricket stadiums across the world. The stadium also stands behind the Melbourne Cricket Ground as the second biggest stadium in the world. In India, the Eden Gardens is the next largest stadium after the Salt Lake Stadium, which mostly hosts football matches. The stadium also has the biggest ground area in the world.
The stadium is situated in the Dalhousie area of the city, near the High Court and the State Secretariat. The Eden Gardens hosted their first ever match in 1934 when the first test was played between India and England. The ground hosted their first ever one-day match in 1987 when the hosts clashed against arch rivals Pakistan. Bowlers deliver from the Pavilion end and the High Court end under massive floodlights installed at the stadium. The ground is under constant maintenance of its curator, Probir Mukherjee.
Well-known for its huge enthusiastic crowds, the ground also carries with it a saying that “a cricketer’s cricketing education is not complete till he has played in front of a packed Eden Gardens.” The Club House of the stadium was named B.C. Roy in honor of Dr. B.C. Roy, the Chief Minister of the State of West Bengal. The team has hosted a number of test matches amongst which, India posted the highest ever total of 657 for 7 wickets against Australia before deciding to declare the innings. Ironically, India also posted the lowest ever total at the ground against West Indies in 1983-84 with only 90 runs. VVS Laxman from India has scored the highest total (281) at the Eden Gardens. Javagal Srinath is the most successful bowler having taken 13 wickets for 132 runs in 1998-99 against Pakistan.
India has also recorded the highest ever one-day international total at the Eden Gardens with 317 against Sri Lanka in 2009-10. The same match saw another Indian, Gautam Gambhir hit the highest total for a one-day an unbeaten 150 runs. Besides these two forms of cricket, the stadium has also witnessed first class matches, women’s cricket matches and Twenty20 matches.
Some highlighted events at the Eden Gardens are Indian pacer, Kapil Dev taking an ODI hat-trick in 1991 against Sri Lanka becoming the second Indian to have achieved the feat, with Harbhajan Singh achieving the same for Test cricket matches in 2000-01 against Australia. The ground also hosted the memorable final of the World Cup 1987 where Australia beat England to claim the title. In 1966-67 and again in 1969-70, the stadium witnessed some rioting incidents.
In April, 2008, the ground hosted its first ever IPL (Indian Premier League) match between the Deccan Chargers and the Kolkata Knight Riders. In 2009, the Stadium underwent another renovation process to reduce their seating capacity to 14,500 to meet the minimum qualifications for the 2011 Cricket World Cup.