Sports
Cricket is one of the popular sports in the city. Sardar Patel Stadium (also known as Motera Stadium), built in 1982, hosts both one day internationals and test matches. It has a seating capacity of 54,000. It hosted the 1987, 1996 and 2011 Cricket World Cups. Ahmedabad also has a second cricket stadium at the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation's Sports Club of Gujarat which is the home ground of the Gujarat cricket team that plays in the Ranji Trophy tournament. The city is represented by the Ahmedabad Rockets in the Indian Cricket League.
Other popular sports are field hockey, badminton, tennis, squash and golf. Ahmedabad currently has three golf courses. Mithakhali Multi Sports Complex is being developed by the AMC to promote various indoor sports. Recently Ahmedabad hosted national level games for roller skating and table tennis. Kart racing is gaining popularity in the city, with the introduction of a 380 meter long track based on Formula One concepts.
Sabarmati Marathon is organized every year in December-January which have different categories like full and half marathon, 7 km dream run, 5 km run for visually challenged and 5 km wheelchair run.In 2011, more than 8000 persons including 73 foreigners took part in marathon.In 2007, Ahmedabad hosted the 51st national level shooting games.
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Famous quotes containing the word sports:
“Sweet smiling village, loveliest of the lawn,
Thy sports are fled and all thy charms withdrawn;
Amidst thy bowers the tyrant’s hand is seen,
And desolation saddens all thy green;
One only master grasps the whole domain,
And half a tillage stints thy smiling plain;”
—Oliver Goldsmith (1730?–1774)
“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)
“...I didn’t come to this with any particular cachet. I was just a person who grew up in the United States. And when I looked around at the people who were sportscasters, I thought they were just people who grew up in the United States, too. So I thought, Why can’t a woman do it? I just assumed everyone else would think it was a swell idea.”
—Gayle Gardner, U.S. sports reporter. As quoted in Sports Illustrated, p. 85 (June 17, 1991)