Former India captains Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble, along with trail-blazing batter Shantha Rangaswamy, will soon see their names fixed above three newly christened stands at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. The Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) confirmed the move during celebrations marking the ground’s 50th year.
For Kumble – 619 Test wickets and 337 in one-day internationals – the ground was the scene of several marathon spells. Dravid, India’s second-highest Test run-scorer with 13,288, accumulated plenty of those runs while representing Karnataka and the national side. Rangaswamy, India Women’s first Test captain back in 1976, scored the team’s maiden Test hundred and later became the first woman to receive the BCCI’s lifetime-achievement award.
“It’s been a second home to me,” Dravid began, reflecting on decades spent within the ground’s concrete curves. “And it’s been a place where… we’ve probably spent more time than we have in our houses. It’s been a place of great happiness, and sometimes great disappointment as well.
“But it’s also a place that has truly given me everything I am today. I can never be grateful enough for what the KSCA and this great, iconic ground have given me in my life. I’m truly thankful that Venkatesh Prasad [the KSCA president] and his committee have decided to name an end after me. It means a lot.
“I know this would mean a lot to my family… He [my father] brought me here to so many matches – not only Test matches, but also Ranji Trophy games… He would be so proud today to know that his son has an end named after him.”
Only three other women in India – Jhulan Goswami in Kolkata, Mithali Raj in Visakhapatnam and Anjum Chopra in Delhi – have enjoyed similar recognition. Rangaswamy’s name therefore becomes the fourth, a small but important marker of changing times.
Dravid acknowledged that wider context. “What makes me even more proud is that I’m sharing this occasion and this honour with some people who I truly admire and respect – [like] to be honoured alongside Shantha Rangaswamy today, someone who has made a huge contribution to women’s sport, to women’s cricket,” he said.
“Not only just cricket, but I think when you look at how women’s sport in all fields has progressed today, I think a huge credit should go to the pioneers like Shantha Rangaswamy for what they did when it was very, very difficult to play sport and to play cricket in this country.”
KSCA officials have not yet confirmed when the new signage will be unveiled, although they hinted it could happen before the next home season.
