Waiting to open

In a couple of weeks from today, the gates of the MA Chidambaram Stadium will open for the fifth test of the India-England series. In that time, India could have either won the series already, or it could be that England is looking to square the series, having won the fourth test at Mumbai. 

Either way, there will be a lot of excitement around the test. Chennai has not hosted an international test match in a long time. The last one such played here was almost four years ago, when India played Australia in February 2013; it is about time the next one takes place. 

So, are you going to be watching this match live?

Knock-out

When the IPL started in 2008, it was expected that the Chennai franchise would be one of the top teams in the league. The success of that model has spawned similar leagues in other sports: hockey, kabbadi, tennis and football. Chennai does not have a team in the kabbadi league; the tennis league is in a different, international format and again, Chennai does not have a team there. Though the city fielded a team in the Premier Hockey League (Chennai Veerans), it does not have one in the Indian Hockey League that replaced the PHL.

That leaves football. There were no great expectations from Chennaiyin FC (Chennai's FC) when the Indian Super League began. The team is owned by three non-Chennaiites - Vita Dani (Dhirubhai Ambani's niece), Abhishek Bachhan and M.S.Dhoni. The last named is an adopted son of the city, being the captain of its IPL cricket team. That was the local connect; even the main sponsor, the Ozone Group, is Bengaluru-headquartered. That did not stop the Chennaiites from putting their weight behind the team. And Chennaiyin FC responded by pulling off some firsts: Balwant Singh became the first Indian player to score in the league, Elano Blumer was the first marquee player in the league to score - and is leading the competition for the Golden Boot. And the team has gone on to top the league (well, there is a match to be played tomorrow, which may see Chennaiyin FC going into second place), but hey, we're into the semis.

The team's logo has caused some debate about what it represents. Whatever the official version be, I think it is just symbolic of what we'd do to the competition. We are just going to நாக் (naak) them out!

Track and field

Not often that you get a chance to see the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium from the train. On a weekday, the carriage would be so crowded that one would not even be able to breathe deeply for fear of pushing a couple of people out on to the tracks. 

On a Sunday morning, it was nice to get this view as the train pulled out of Chennai Central. Would have been nice to get a view of those tracks inside the stadium, as well!

Jabulani!

The Copa Mundial is here! Watched South Africa rattle the Mexicans and it is now time for Uruguay -France.....

In the meantime, here's a picture of a couple of the local teams playing at the Jawarlal Nehru Stadium. I'm not sure who is who, but I am sure yellow shirts will win!

Sporting arena

Home - rather, office address - to almost all sports associations in the state, the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium is the best venue in Chennai for track & field events or football matches. It would be a great experience to watch an exciting match or soak in the thrill of serious running and jumping when the stands are full. But the capacity has rarely been tested, mainly because neither athletics nor football arouses serious passions in a Chennaite. Sure, Nallusamy Annavi first came onto the national scene at Madras about 20 years ago with his record setting high-jump effort, but he never considered himself a Madrasi and the fever his record created died out pretty quickly.

As for football, the stadium is rated for international games, but memory strains to recall a decent international football match here. There have been matches of the South Asian games and suchlike, but none that featured high-powered international stars - and there are few local stars in the game.

No wonder then that the stands appear deserted almost all the time. A few hundred spectators watching a league football match or a state-level athletics meet will hardly serve to fill the 40,000 seats in this stadium!

Sports meet

For a huge majority of Chennai residents, the only connection with a stadium would have been the Rajarathnam Stadium, on Rukmini Lakshmipathy Road (Marshalls Road). Its location makes it a very convenient venue to host a variety of events, including many that have only a tenuous connection to any kind of sport. Selection drills for the Fire Services, award of best performance in Anti-Tobacco program, distribution of vehicles to local government bodies - Rajarathnam Stadium has hosted all such events without batting an eyelid.

Having said all that, nobody from Chennai with any pretentions of being an athlete can ignore this stadium. With most schools not having enough space to conduct a full-fledged sports meet, this stadium has for long been first choice for such activities. It is almost the default venue for any inter-school, inter-college or inter-university track-and-field competition being held in Chennai. Indeed, for a very long while, it was the only one available for such pursuits. On a rare day when there was no event being held in the stadium, it would be filled with several marginal sportspersons - all those who got into various government and quasi-government institutions on the 'sports quota', needing to put in those hours of practice needed to maintain their 'sports quota' presence.

The red-clay track at this stadium has seen some really serious rivalries over the years, between various schools and colleges in the city. These days, one doesn't get to hear about them - either their 'news value' of such events has lessened or the events themselves have; and I do hope it is only the former!