Sports
Delhi has hosted many major international sporting events, including the first and the ninth Asian Games, the 2010 Hockey World Cup and the 2011 Cricket World Cup at Feroz Shah Kotla. Delhi lost bidding for the 2014 Asian Games, and considered making a bid for the 2020 Summer Olympics. However, sports minister Manohar Singh Gill later stated that funding infrastructure would come before a 2020 bid.
The 2010 Commonwealth Games, which ran from 3 to 14 October 2010, was one of the largest sports event held in India. The opening ceremony of the 2010 Commonwealth Games was held at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, the main stadium of the event, in New Delhi at 7:00 pm Indian Standard Time on 3 October 2010. The ceremony featured over 8,000 performers and lasted for two and a half hours. It is estimated that 350 crore (US$63.7 million) were spent to produce the ceremony. Events took place at 12 competition venues. 20 training venues were used in the Games, including seven venues within Delhi University. The rugby stadium in Delhi University North Campus hosted rugby games for Commonwealth Games. The mess left behind after the Commonwealth Games prompted Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to replace Sports and Youth Affairs minister Manohar Singh Gill with Ajay Maken in the 19 January 2011 Cabinet reshuffle.
Cricket and football are the most popular sports in Delhi. There are several cricket grounds, or maidans, located across the city. The Feroz Shah Kotla stadium is one of the oldest cricket grounds in India and is a venue for international cricket matches. The Delhi cricket team represents the city in the Ranji Trophy, a domestic first-class cricket championship. The city is also home to the Indian Premier League team Delhi Daredevils, and Indian Cricket League team Delhi Giants, previously called Delhi Jets.
Ambedkar Stadium, a football stadium in Delhi which holds 20,000 people, was the venue for the Indian football team's World Cup qualifier against UAE on 28 July 2012. Delhi hosted the Nehru Cup in 2007 and 2009, in both of which India defeated Syria 1-0. In the Elite Football League of India, Delhi's first professional American football franchise, the Delhi Defenders played its first season in Pune. Buddh International Circuit in Greater Noida, a suburb of Delhi, hosts the annual Formula 1 Indian Grand Prix. The Indira Gandhi Arena is also in Delhi.
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Famous quotes containing the word sports:
“Even from their infancy we frame them to the sports of love: their instruction, behaviour, attire, grace, learning and all their words aimeth only at love, respects only affection. Their nurses and their keepers imprint no other thing in them.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)
“Guys do not have a genetic blueprint that allows them to understand or love sports.”
—Lesley Visser, U.S. sports reporter and announcer. As quoted in Sports Illustrated, p. 82 (June 17, 1991)
“Reading about ethics is about as likely to improve one’s behavior as reading about sports is to make one into an athlete.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)