“Today Marks 90th Anniversary Of First Ever Cricket Test Match”: Shashi Tharoor (image-twitter/shashitharoor)
Ninety-one years ago, all India cricket team travelled all the way to British shores to play against England on June 25 which marked the beginning of a rich legacy of Indian cricket. India still under British rule with nationalist movement steaming back home, the team might have never thought about the legacies awaiting them in the sporting field.
A year soon after that, on December 15, first time in history, the England team led by Douglas Jardine played against India’s Colonel CK Nayadu”s team on Indian soil at the Bombay Gymkhana Club.
Remembering the auspicious event, marking 90th anniversary of the first ever Test match played in the Indian soil, Thiruvananthapuram Congress MP Shashi Tharoor shared the picture of the match on X, captioned, “Today marks the 90th anniversary of the first-ever cricket Test match played on Indian soil, India vs England at the historic Bombay Gymkhana ground on 15 December 1933. Since Indians (&dogs) were not allowed on the Gymkhana premises those days, the Maharaja of Patiala, offended by the way his compatriots were treated, then established the Cricket Club of India and the adjoining Brabourne Stadium, in whose pavilion no racist restrictions applied. It was a great venue where I watched many a Test in my childhood”.
Today marks the 90th anniversary of the first-ever cricket Test match played on Indian soil, India vs England at the historic Bombay Gymkhana ground on 15 December 1933. [pic]
Since Indians (& dogs) were not allowed on the Gymkhana premises those days, the Maharaja of Patiala,… pic.twitter.com/1kCJP1M0MR
— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) December 15, 2023
The Test match in Bombay will always be cherished in the Indian hearts forever as the events at the Bombay Gymkhana Club in 1933 shaped the future of the team and also led to the creation of cricket club accessible to Indians.
Mumbai has been traditional cricket capital of India. And this city witnessed the rise of many cricketing legends including Vijay Merchant, Sunil Gavaskar, Ajit Wadekar, Sachin Tendulkar and Rohit Sharma.
Maharaja of Patiala Bhupinder Singh played a crucial role in the creation of an Indian team and Cricket Club of India (CCI) in 1933. Due to the discrimination faced by the team in Gymkhana Club, the famous Brabourne stadium was established which housed the CCI.
A dispute between the CCI and Bombay Cricket Association (BCA) after forty years laid the foundation of iconic Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
