Bombay Gymkhana
Encyclopedia
Hindi
Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...
: बम्बई जिमख़ाना), established in 1875, is one of the premiere gymkhana
Gymkhana
Gymkhana is a typical Anglo-Indian expression, which is derived from the Hindi-Urdu word for "racket court," is an Indian term which originally referred to a place where sporting events take place. The meaning then altered to denote a place where skill-based contests were held...
s (sports arena) in the city of Mumbai
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. It is located in the South Mumbai
South Mumbai
South Mumbai , sometimes incorrectly referred to by English Media as "SoBo" , the southern-most precinct of the city of Mumbai, India, comprises the city's main business localities and its adjoining areas...
area and was originally built as a British-only club, designed by English architect, Claude Batley
Claude Batley
Claude Batley was an English architect who left for India in 1913 and started a successful practice there in 1917 with Gregson and King, a firm of architects which is still extant under the name of Gregson, Batley and King.Among his works are the Bombay Gymkhana , Wankaner Palace now Lincoln...
.
The Gymkhana Grounds lie in the southern end of the Azad Maidan
Azad Maidan
Azad Maidan is a triangular-shaped maidan in South Mumbai, India. The name Azad means "free" in Hindi. The ground is known for its cricket pitches, for protest meetings, and for political rallies...
. The ground itself is on leased property. It has a triangular
Triangle
A triangle is one of the basic shapes of geometry: a polygon with three corners or vertices and three sides or edges which are line segments. A triangle with vertices A, B, and C is denoted ....
area, with the southern end facing the VSNL building. MG Road and H Somal Marg are the two roads on either end that begin from the southern end. It is boxed in by a shortcut lane which connects Churchgate
Churchgate
Churchgate is an area in downtown South Mumbai. During the eighteenth and up to the mid 19th century, Bombay was a walled city. The city walls had three gates, and Church Gate, named after St. Thomas Cathedral, Mumbai was one of the gates. The gate was situated near the present day location of...
to Victoria Terminus.
Table tennis
Table tennis, also known as ping-pong, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight, hollow ball back and forth using table tennis rackets. The game takes place on a hard table divided by a net...
area, badminton
Badminton
Badminton is a racquet sport played by either two opposing players or two opposing pairs , who take positions on opposite halves of a rectangular court that is divided by a net. Players score points by striking a shuttlecock with their racquet so that it passes over the net and lands in their...
court, restaurant and lounge connects the two roads. The region between the building and the lane is a large ground. It is very difficult to get membership into this exclusive club.
Cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
is played here in the winter months, and rugby
Rugby football
Rugby football is a style of football named after Rugby School in the United Kingdom. It is seen most prominently in two current sports, rugby league and rugby union.-History:...
and football (soccer)
Football (soccer)
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...
in the monsoon
Monsoon
Monsoon is traditionally defined as a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation, but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with the asymmetric heating of land and sea...
months. This used to be major centre for the erstwhile Bombay Pentangular cricket matches. The ground had the distinction of hosting India's first Test cricket
Test cricket
Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...
match on 15 December 1933, captained by CK Nayudu. Many of the matches of the long-running Bombay Quadrangular
Bombay Quadrangular
The Bombay Quadrangular was an influential cricket tournament held in Bombay, India from 1912 to 1936. At other times it was known variously as the Presidency Match, Bombay Triangular, and the Bombay Pentangular....
tournament were also held there. It hasn't hosted any international cricket matches since the Brabourne Stadium
Brabourne Stadium
The Brabourne Stadium is a cricket ground in the Indian city of Mumbai. It is located on 90,000 square yards of reclaimed land along Marine Drive near Churchgate railway station in South Mumbai. The stadium is owned by the Cricket Club of India . Brabourne Stadium is India's first permanent...
took its place in 1948. The last international event of some sort was in 1996 when the Australian cricket team
Australian cricket team
The Australian cricket team is the national cricket team of Australia. It is the joint oldest team in Test cricket, having played in the first Test match in 1877...
used the grounds to practice prior to their clash with India in the 1996 Cricket World Cup
1996 Cricket World Cup
The 1996 Cricket World Cup, also called the Wills World Cup after its official sponsors, was the sixth edition of the tournament organized by the International Cricket Council . It was the second World Cup to be hosted by Pakistan and India, and for the first time by Sri Lanka...
.
The ground also hosts a national rugby
Rugby football
Rugby football is a style of football named after Rugby School in the United Kingdom. It is seen most prominently in two current sports, rugby league and rugby union.-History:...
competition, and has recently hosted matches against Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
and a few other South Asian teams. It has also hosted national and international squash
Squash (sport)
Squash is a high-speed racquet sport played by two players in a four-walled court with a small, hollow rubber ball...
tournaments.
It also has swimming facilities at the southern end.
Until a few years ago, only men could gain membership to the club. Women were able to join from the early 2000s.
The Bombay Gymkhana is one of the most exclusive clubs in the country: the waiting period for membership extends into years, and the fees are in the millions of rupees.
External links
- Ground profile from CricinfoCricinfoESPNcricinfo is believed to be the largest cricket-related website on the World Wide Web. Content includes news,articles, live scorecards,live text commentary and a comprehensive and searchable database called 'StatsGuru', of historical matches and players from the 18th century to the present...
- HSBC Bombay Gymkhana Maharashtra State Open Squash Championship 2006 Results
- Club website