The Maharashtra Cricket Association is located at Gahunje, near the city of Pune in Maharashtra.
It serves as the home ground to the Maharashtra Cricket team, the Rising Pune Supergiant in the Indian Premier League and as the headquarters of the association itself.
It was constructed very recently, in 2012, when the association decided to carter to the needs of large cricket audience in India. It can hold 37,406 spectators.
History
The stadium has its roots in a dispute between the MCA and the Pune Municipal Corporation which was a result of a disagreement in the allocation of tickets for an international game to be played against Sri Lanka. The game was moved to another city and this prompted the association to construct a new home ground.
This ground was inaugurated on the 1st April, 2012. The stadium was briefly named as the Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium but was changed back when Sahara failed to pay full compensation for the rights.
The first match was played between Kings XI Punjab and Pune Warriors in April 2012. The first international match was a T20 played between India and England in the December of 2012.
Major Matches
The MCA stadium hosted its first Test match in the February of 2017, played between India and Australia. Australia scored a major 333 run victory over India in this match.
The track tends to be a good wicket for batting. However, the spinners are known to play their part as the game progresses.
The highest scores in both T20 international and ODI cricket which are 158 and 356 respectively have been successfully by the side that has batted first.
Controversies
On October 25, 2017 a stadium groundsman, Pandurang Salgaoncar, was sacked after video emerged of him allegedly agreeing to tamper with the wicket before an ODI between India and New Zealand.
The sting operation was conducted by India TV which showed the groundsman talking to a reporter posing as a bookmaker. This footage was broadcast a few hours before the match itself.
It was reported on February 28, 2017 that the pitch received a “poor” rating by the ICC match referee.
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