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Fateh Maidan(Lal Bahadur Stadium)

Aurangzeb had camped here before conquering the Golconda Fort, Hence it was named "Fateh Maidan"(Victory Ground).lt was used for parade and polo for nearly a century.The adjacent hill 300ft.high, is called "Naubat pahad" as the Firmans of the Moghul kings were announced to the subjects by the beat of drums from this hills. The famous Ritz hotel is located on this hill. Now the maiden has been converted into a cricket  pavilion and Football ground.The Lal Bahadur Shastri stadium, formerly Fateh Maidan, was named after Lal Bahadur Shastri, former Indian Prime Minister. The ground hosted its first Test in 1955 when India faced New Zealand. The fact that the stadium has staged only three Test matches so far shows that the ground never gained the stature of India's other top-class venues.Nevertheless, in the few occasions that it has got, the stadium has produced some exhilarating cricketing encounters. In one of the great World Cup matches played in 1987, Zimbabwe lost to New Zealand by 3 runs despite a braveheart 142 by David Houghton. It also witnessed a record-shattering 331-run partnership between Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid in the 1999-2000 tour of New Zealand.But with the coming up of the spanking new Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, the Lalbahadur Shastri stadium faces the prospect of fading into oblivion.

 Profile  :Formerly the Fateh Maidan, the Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium hosted a Test match as far back as 1955-56 without ever becoming one of India's frontline venues. New Zealand were the opponents in all three Tests staged there - the last of which was a generation ago - and also had a part to play in one of the great World Cup matches, when David Houghton's magnificent 142 fell just short of lifting Zimbabwe to an epic victory in 1987. As a domestic venue, it played host to some of the titans of the Indian game, home turf for the likes of Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, ML Jaisimha, Mohammad Azharuddin and VVS Laxman. A slow and low batsman-friendly pitch was usually to the liking of slow bowlers as well, with another hometown hero, Arshad Ayub, nursing fond memories of India's only Test win there. As a one-day arena, it also witnessed a record-shattering 331-run partnership between Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid in 1999-2000, with New Zealand again at the receiving end. But with a new state-of-the-art venue having come up across town, the days of bat smacking ball in an international game may soon become a distant memory for this storied stadium.

Saturday found me at Lal Bahadur Stadium (the now defunct “Official” Cricket Stadium of Hyderabad that played host to the recently concluded ICL, the IPL predecessor). I had planned to watch the ICL “Live in the stadium”, but the plan never realized… Now I was at the venue of the tournament, the stadium seemed to be recuperating after the tournament. Every place I turned my eyes to, there were debris - the stands where every four and six was cheered by dancing girls were being dismantled. The commentary box, third umpire’s box, and the studio from where pre and post match analysis is done were intact, and it was quite an experience seeing them. The commentary box had two long tables with many white paper strips proclaiming the type of feed (sky-cam et al) that the TV that would have been there would be displaying. The view from the commentary box of the ground was fantastic and on a match night it would have been spectacular, day-by-day I am growing more envious of the commentators’ brigade. What surprised me though was the size of the three rooms, only the commentary box was what could be termed as large, rest two were just average sized. Off the commentary box, I pried of a piece of paper that had the timing slots for the commentators, earlier I used to think that the commentators divide the job based on number of overs (generally every 7th over the commentator is changed in ODIs) - now I know the distribution is time based.

Well these things had their charm, but for me the clincher was wandering around the ground and checking out the pitch. Utkarsh had earlier mentioned that a ground does not seem as big as it is seen on the TV, even I had had the same experience when I had visited Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore - the grounds seem much smaller in real life. And I was drooling at the prospect of playing on the lush green grass, in college we used to dive around while fielding even when the only trace of grass on the cricket ground was below the trees which was the pavilion for all our matches :) As for the pitch, I was actually very surprised. During cricket telecast, you can see the pitch as a stretch of brown surrounded by green. Here the pitch was a speck of brown and green inter-mingled. It had been just 3 days that the ICL final was played here, and already the pitch was being taken over by the grass. I am no expert on pitches; I had no idea whether that pitch would turn, whether it would aid swing, or whether it was a belter. I know just that it was much softer then what I had expected, it had a sort of spongy feeling to it - bowling a bouncer whizzing by the nose would have been very tough on this pitch. This is why the Indian pitches are conducive to batting, without bothering about getting your rib cage shattered; you can play your shots. I’d love to play on that pitch, although not facing the bowlers who would generally bowl there :) On the whole I felt the picture presented by the television is afar from truth. A cricket stadium is much more different from what is seen on the idiot box.

Records and statistics   Statistics      Ground records | Statsguru Tests | Statsguru ODIs
First Test     India v New Zealand - Nov 19-24, 1955 scorecard
Last Test     India v New Zealand - Dec 2-6, 1988 scorecard
First ODI     India v Pakistan - Sep 10, 1983 scorecard
Last ODI     India v New Zealand - Nov 15, 2003 scorecard