Cricket is amongst the popular sports inChennai. TheM. A. Chidambaram Stadium is one of the oldest cricket stadiums in India and has been the venue for many notable milestones in the history of Indian cricket. Other sports played includetennis,field hockey,football,motor racing andsquash. Chennai has a rich legacy inchess and has produced many well-known chess players, the most notable of them beingViswanathan Anand.
Cricket is the most popular sport in Chennai.[1] TheM. A. Chidambaram Stadium (formerly known as Madras Cricket Club ground or Chepauk Stadium) inChepauk and popularly called the MAC, is one of the oldest cricket stadiums in India built in 1916. It seats more than 50,000 and is home to theTamil Nadu Cricket Association and theChennai Super Kings IPL franchise. The stadium is famous for its list of records, including the first ever test match victory thatIndia recorded in 1951–52 when they defeated England, the second of only twotied tests between India and Australia in 1986 and Saeed Anwar's 194 in 1999 which is the third highest ODI score by a batsman.[2][3] Prominent cricketers from Chennai include former Test-captainsS. Venkataraghavan andKris Srikkanth,Laxman Sivaramakrishnan,Sadagoppan Ramesh,Murali Karthik,Lakshmipathy Balaji,Murali Vijay,Ravichandran Ashwin,Dinesh Karthik, Vijay Shankar andWashington Sundar . Cricket administrators from Chennai include formerBCCI presidentsM. A. Chidambaram andA. C. Muthiah. The internationally renowned cricket bowling academy, theMRF Pace Foundation under the directorship of famous fast bowlerGlenn McGrath is based in Chennai.Chennai Super Kings, a franchise based inChennai is the most successful team in theIndian Premier League. It is also home toChepauk Super Gillies, a popularTamil Nadu Premier League franchise.
Tennis is another popular game in Chennai. The city hosted the country's onlyATP event, the now defunctChennai Open, from 1996 to 2017 at theSDAT Tennis Stadium inNungambakkam. The stadium seats about 6,000 spectators and has five synthetic surface courts. The tournament was awarded the title of the best new event in its second year by theAssociation of Tennis Professionals. Indian tennis stars such asRamanathan Krishnan,Vijay Amritraj,Ramesh Krishnan andMahesh Bhupathi hail from Chennai.[4]Leander Paes did his schooling and was trained in Chennai. One of India's top tennis training academies, the Britannia Amritraj Tennis Academy is based in Chennai.
Chennai is home toChennai Slam,[5] two-time national champion of India's top professional basketball division, theUBA Pro Basketball League.
TheMayor Radhakrishnan Stadium, with a seating capacity of 4000, is the venue forhockey matches in the city. The stadium has twice hosted the Champions Trophy, featuring the top six teams in the world, in 1996 and 2005.[6] Chennai is home to theWorld Series Hockey teamChennai Cheetahs since 2011.[7] It was also the home of the defunctPremiere Hockey League teamChennai Veerans. Notable international players includeVasudevan Baskaran,Krishnamurthy Perumal,M. J. Gopalan andMohammed Riaz.
The Squash Rackets Federation of India (SRFI) is headquartered in Chennai. It has more than 20 State Associations and affiliated units.Dipika Pallikal, India's top ranked women's squash player hails from Chennai.
Chennai has a long-standing and thrivingmotorsport culture.Madras Motor Racing Track, Chennai was one of only two permanent race ways inIndia along withKari Motor Speedway,Coimbatore before the construction ofBuddh International Circuit in 2011.[8]Madras Rubber Factory based out of Chennai built is firstFormula 3 car in 1997.[9] MRF in collaboration withMaruti established theFormula Maruti racing, a single-seater, open wheel class motorsport racing event for race cars made in India.[10]MRF Challenge is aFormula 2000 open-wheel motorsport formula based series organized byMadras Motor Sports Club in association with MRF.Narain Karthikeyan andKarun Chandhok, the only drivers from to represent India inFormula 1 were born in Chennai.Motor racing events are held at theSriperumbudur track for cars and theSholavaram track for motorcycles. Races of the FISSME class, 1300 CC class and 1600 CC class are held regularly in Irungattukottai.
TheGuindy Race Course forhorse racing was set up in 1777.[11] The city also has a pigeon-racing culture that started in the 1970s and now has 11 clubs and 400 racing enthusiasts.[12]
Football is a popular sport in schools. Football matches are played atJawaharlal Nehru Stadium inChennai. TheIndian Super League teamChennaiyin FC, and formerI-League winning clubChennai City FC are based inChennai.[13][14] The city is also home of another football clubIndian Bank RC,[15] that previously competed in theNational Football League.
On the 5th of February 2019, it was reported in both the Swiss and Indian newspapers that Chennai City FC (CCFC) are all set to sell 35 per cent of the club's stake to Swiss clubFC Basel. The Swiss Champions League regulars will also invest 20m euros in CCFC. FC Basel will also have a player exchange program, including first team players, with CCFC and help the club with technical know how.[16][17]
Athletic competitions are held at theJawaharlal Nehru Stadium, which seats 40,000. The complex also houses a multipurpose indoor stadium with aseating capacity of 8,000 which hosts various competitions includingvolleyball,basketball andtable tennis. The Velachery Aquatic Complex seats 4,000 and hosts various water sports. Chennai was the venue of theSAF Games in 1995.
Chess is a popular board game in the city. It has been called the "Mecca of Chess" in India, producing more grandmasters than any other city in India.Most popularly, Viswanathan Anand, the five-timeworld chess champion, is from Chennai. It is the hometown of prominent coachesRamesh RB, five-time olympiad team captain, andSrinath Narayanan, three-time olympiad team captain (twice in online olympiad).Manuel Aaron, India's first International Master, andS. Vijayalakshmi, India's first Woman Grandmaster (WGM), both hail from Chennai. It is home to super-GMsKrishnan Sasikiran,Adhiban Baskaran, and young talentsR Praggnanandhaa andD Gukesh.
Othernational champions from Chennai areAravindh Chithambaram,Karthikeyan Murali,S. P. Sethuraman, andG. Akash in the open section, andAarthie Ramaswamy in the women's section.
Chennai is home to popularTable tennis playersSharath Kamal and Subramanian Raman, both gold medalists at theCommonwealth Games and winners of theArjuna award. The ChennaiSepak Takraw League is a major attraction in Chennai for the sport ofSepak Takraw, players fromTamil Nadu participate in four teams in this league. The Tamil Nadu men's team is one of the leading teams in India and many players from Tamil Nadu have represented India.
Chennai is home to arugby union team called the Chennai Cheetahs and was founded in 1997 by four software professionals. It was All India Champion in 2004 and 2006 and also won the All India sevens in 2005 and the South India ten in 2007. India's onlyArjuna awardee forCarrom and two-time world champion,Maria Irudayam and the present women's world champion Ilavazhagi are natives of Chennai.[18] There is also a growing enthusiasm inParkour & Freerunning which is fueled by the "Chennai Parkour" and "Parkour Circle" groups. TheMadras Boat Club, founded in 1867, hosts rowing competitions.
The city has two 18-holegolf courses: theCosmopolitan Club and theGymkhana Club golf course, both of which were established in the late 19th century. Private golf courses include the proposed one at Hirco Palace Gardens at Oragadam, a western suburb of Chennai, which features an architectural canopy to protect the golfers from sun and rain and a combination of Par 3,4 and 5 holes each with its unique combination of bunker, water and vegetation hazards. The 50-acre course stretches out to over 2,500 meters (an 18-hole equivalent of 5000 meters/5500 yards).[19] Chennai was the venue for the firstCommonwealth Junior Fencing Championships held in 2006.
