Sports
Cricket is the most popular sport, followed by tennis and football. Visakhapatnam is home to a number of local cricket teams participating in district and zone matches. Gully cricket (a form of cricket played in streets or parks) is a popular pastime for local youth. Visakhapatnam co-hosted the 32nd National Games with the state capital, Hyderabad. The city has seven cricket stadiums, which are used for Ranji Trophy matches; two of these stadiums have been used for one day international matches. Some of these stadiums are:
- Indira Priyadarshini Stadium (five ODI matches): Also known as the Municipal Corporation Stadium, it hosted the first ODI match on 9 December 1988 and the last of the five on 3 April 2001. The stadium has discontinued hosting ODI matches in favor of the newer ACA-VDCA Stadium in Madhurawada. The stadium is in the hills, and provides a scenic view.It also hosted the Twenty-20 match, but was abonded due to rain.
- ACA-VDCA Stadium (four ODI matches): The ACA-VDCA Stadium has hosted four ODIs, with India winning against Pakistan in the first, Sri Lanka in the second, Australia in the third and the West Indies in the fourth. The stadium has been upgraded for night matches. It has the most advanced floodlights in India, after Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Kochi. The stadium was recently named the YS Rajasekhara Reddy Stadium.
- Port Trust Golden Jubilee Stadium: Second-largest stadium in Visakhapatnam, which has hosted Under-19 Youth Internationals
Visakhapatnam has not hosted a test match; however, the ACA-VDCA Stadium was recently awarded test status—the ninth stadium with test status in the country, and the second in Andhra Pradesh.
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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Thy sports are fled and all thy charms withdrawn;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)
“Short of a wholesale reform of college athletics—a complete breakdown of the whole system that is now focused on money and power—the women’s programs are just as doomed as the men’s are to move further and further away from the academic mission of their colleges.... We have to decide if that’s the kind of success for women’s sports that we want.”
—Christine H. B. Grant, U.S. university athletic director. As quoted in the Chronicle of Higher Education, p. A42 (May 12, 1993)
“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)