Eden Gardens Stadium

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Location: Behind the Akashwani Bhawan

Significance: Largest stadium in Asia

Eden Garden is a famous destination in a city known for its large number of sports enthusiast. Passionate conversations relating to Football, Hockey and Cricket rules the local clubs, public places and casual gatherings. Perhaps as a fitting tribute to its sporty culture, the biggest cricket stadium in the country is found in Kolkata. Eden Garden with a capacity of more than one lac spectators has been hosting memorable contest for more than 200 years now.

The first reported match was played here on February 23, 1792 between Englishmen residing in the districts of Barrackpore and Dum Dum. The Kolkata Cricket Club holds the proud distinction of being the oldest surviving cricket club outside the British Isles and it may be said that the roots of India cricket lies in Kolkata.

Eden Garden hosted its first ever first class match in 1917-18 and the first test match was held on January 1934 against Douglas Jardines’s MCC. This is also the first venue in the country where floodlights were installed and Day and Night cricket was played. The stadia have hosted the maximum number of Test matches in the country. One of Eden Garden’s famous moments is when it is filled to maximum capacity, all of them screaming and pegging on their teams. It has also hosted several important matches including World Cup Finals 1987, World Cup Semi Finals 1996 and several other tournaments and holds a special place not only in the India but the International cricket community as well. Several leading players have expressed their desire to play at least once during their career at Eden Gardens.