Cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...

is the most popular sport in

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of ...

. The M. A. Chidambaram Stadium is one of the oldest cricket stadiums in India and has been the venue for many notable milestones in the history of Indian cricket.

Tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball c ...

field hockey Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shootin ...

, football and

formula racing Formula racing (known as open-wheel racing in North America) is any of several forms of open-wheeled single-seater motorsport. The origin of the term lies in the nomenclature that was adopted by the FIA for all of its post-World War II single ...

and squash are the other popular sports. The city hosts an ATP tennis event, the Chennai Open. Chennai has a rich legacy in chess and has produced many well-known chess players, the most notable of them being

Viswanathan Anand Viswanathan "Vishy" Anand (born 11 December 1969) is an Indian chess grandmaster and a former five-time World Chess Champion. He became the first grandmaster from India in 1988, and is one of the few players to have surpassed an Elo rating ...

, the former multiple

World Chess Champion The World Chess Championship is played to determine the world champion in chess. The current world champion is Magnus Carlsen of Norway, who has held the title since 2013. The first event recognized as a world championship was the 1886 match ...

Cricket

Cricket is the most popular sport in Chennai. The M. A. Chidambaram Stadium (formerly known as Madras Cricket Club ground or Chepauk Stadium) in

Chepauk Chepauk is a locality in Chennai, India. The name Chepauk is popularly used to refer to the M. A. Chidambaram International Cricket Stadium, also known as the Chepauk Stadium. It is also home to the Chepauk Palace, built in the Indo-Saraceni ...

and popularly called the MAC, is one of the oldest cricket stadiums in India built in 1916. It seats more than 50,000 and is home to the

Tamil Nadu Cricket Association Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA) is the governing body of cricket activities in the India state of Tamil Nadu. It is affiliated to the Board of Control for Cricket in India and governs the Tamil Nadu cricket team. Rupa Gurunath is the form ...

and the

Chennai Super Kings Chennai Super Kings (CSK) is an Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise cricket team based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Founded in 2008, the team plays its home matches at the M. A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. The team is owned by India ...

IPL franchise. The stadium is famous for its list of records, including the first ever test match victory that

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

recorded in 1951–52 when they defeated England, the second of only two

tied test A Tied Test is a Test cricket match in which the side batting second is bowled out in the fourth innings, with scores level. This is a very rare result; only two ties have occurred in the 2,000 Tests played since 1877. The first was in 1960 and t ...

s between India and Australia in 1986 and Saeed Anwar's 194 in 1999 which is the third highest ODI score by a batsman. Prominent cricketers from Chennai include former Test-captains S. Venkataraghavan and Kris Srikkanth, Laxman Sivaramakrishnan, Sadagoppan Ramesh,

Murali Karthik Murali Kartik (, born 11 September 1976) is an Indian cricket commentator and former cricketer who sporadically represented the national team from 2000 to 2007. He was a specialist slow left arm orthodox bowler known for his loopy trajectory an ...

, Lakshmipathy Balaji,

Murali Vijay Murali Vijay (born 1 April 1984) is an Indian international cricketer who plays as a right-handed opening batsman. He was a regular member of the Indian Test team until 2018 and plays for Tamil Nadu in domestic first-class cricket. After fail ...

Ravichandran Ashwin Ravichandran Ashwin () (born 17 September 1986) is an Indian international cricketer who plays for the Indian cricket team as a bowling All-rounder who bats right-handed and bowls right-arm off-break, he plays for Tamil Nadu in domestic crick ...

, Dinesh Karthik, Vijay Shankar and Washington Sundar . Cricket administrators from Chennai include former BCCI presidents

M. A. Chidambaram Muthiah Annamalai Chidambaram (12 October 1918 – 19 January 2000) was an Indian industrialist and cricket administrator. He was the youngest son of Raja Sir Annamalai Chettiar, Raja of Chettinad. Early life Chidambaram was born at Kanadukat ...

and

A. C. Muthiah Annamalai Chidambaram Muthiah (born 1941) is an Indian industrialist and cricket administrator. He served as the Chairman of Southern Petrochemical Industries Limited (SPIC) and is the chairman of Sri Venkateswara College of Engineering (SVCE) ...

. The internationally renowned cricket bowling academy, the MRF Pace Foundation under the directorship of famous fast bowler

Glenn McGrath Glenn Donald McGrath (; born 9 February 1970) is an Australian former international cricketer who played international cricket for 14 years. He was a fast-medium pace bowler and is considered one of the greatest international bowlers of all t ...

is based in Chennai.

, a franchise based in

is the most successful team in the

Indian Premier League The Indian Premier League (IPL), also known as Tata Group, TATA IPL for sponsorship reasons, is a men's T20 cricket, T20 Professional sports league organization, franchise cricket Sports league, league of India. It is annually contested by ...

. It is also home to Chepauk Super Gillies, a popular Tamil Nadu Premier League franchise.

Tennis

is another popular game in Chennai. The city hosted the country's only

ATP ATP may refer to: Companies and organizations * Association of Tennis Professionals, men's professional tennis governing body * American Technical Publishers, employee-owned publishing company * ', a Danish pension * Armenia Tree Project, non ...

event, the now defunct Chennai Open, from 1996 to 2017 at the SDAT Tennis Stadium in Nungambakkam. The stadium seats about 6,000 spectators and has five synthetic surface courts. The tournament was awarded the title of the best new event in its second year by the

Association of Tennis Professionals The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) is the governing body of the men's professional tennis circuits – the ATP Tour, the ATP Challenger Tour and the ATP Champions Tour. It was formed in September 1972 by Donald Dell, Jack Kramer, and ...

. Indian tennis stars such as Ramanathan Krishnan,

Vijay Amritraj Vijay Amritraj (born 14 December 1953) is an Indian sports commentator, actor and retired professional tennis player from Madras. He was awarded the Padma Shri, India's 4th highest civilian honour, in 1983.In 2022, he was honored for his cont ...

Ramesh Krishnan Ramesh Krishnan (born 5 June 1961) is a tennis coach and former professional tennis player from India. As a junior player in the late 1970s, he won the singles titles at both, Wimbledon and the French Open. He went on to reach three Grand Sla ...

and Mahesh Bhupathi hail from Chennai.

Leander Paes Leander Adrian Paes ( ; born 17 June 1973) is an Indian former professional tennis player. He is regarded as one of the greatest doubles tennis players ever. He holds the record for the most doubles wins in the Davis Cup. Paes won eight men ...

did his schooling and was trained in Chennai. One of India's top tennis training academies, the Britannia Amritraj Tennis Academy is based in Chennai.

Basketball

Chennai is home to Chennai Slam, two-time national champion of India's top professional basketball division, the UBA Pro Basketball League.

Hockey

The Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium, with a seating capacity of 4000, is the venue for

hockey Hockey is a term used to denote a family of various types of both summer and winter team sports which originated on either an outdoor field, sheet of ice, or dry floor such as in a gymnasium. While these sports vary in specific rules, numbers o ...

matches in the city. The stadium has twice hosted the Champions Trophy, featuring the top six teams in the world, in 1996 and 2005. Chennai is home to the World Series Hockey team Chennai Cheetahs since 2011. It was also the home of the defunct Premiere Hockey League team Chennai Veerans. Notable international players include

Vasudevan Baskaran Vasudevan Baskaran (born 17 August 1950) is a former field hockey player and coach from Tamil Nadu, India. He captained the India, which won the gold medal at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, then part of the Soviet Union. Thereafter ...

, Krishnamurthy Perumal,

M. J. Gopalan Morappakam Josyam Gopalan (6 June 1909 – 21 December 2003) was an Indian sportsman who represented India in cricket and hockey. Gopalan hailed from the village of Morappakam in Chingleput district, some 50 kilometres from Chennai. His fami ...

and Mohammed Riaz.

Squash

The Squash Rackets Federation of India (SRFI) is headquartered in Chennai. It has more than 20 State Associations and affiliated units.

Dipika Pallikal Dipika Pallikal Karthik (née Pallikal; born 21 September 1991) is an Indian professional squash player. She is the first Indian to break into the top 10 in the PSA Women's rankings. Dipika Pallikal came to prominence in 2011, when she won t ...

, India's top ranked women's squash player hails from Chennai.

Racing

Motorsports

Chennai has a long-standing and thriving motorsport culture. Madras Motor Racing Track, Chennai was one of only two permanent race ways in

along with

Kari Motor Speedway Kari Motor Speedway is a purpose-built Formula 3 auto racing circuit or race track, located in Chettipalayam, Coimbatore, India. The long track was inaugurated in 2003. The circuit is named after S. Karivardhan. History Part of the existin ...

, Coimbatore before the construction of

Buddh International Circuit The Buddh International Circuit ( hi, बुद्ध अंतरराष्ट्रीय परिपथ) is an Indian motor racing circuit situated in National Capital Region at Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh. The track shares its name with ...

in 2011. Madras Rubber Factory based out of Chennai built is first

Formula 3 Formula Three, also called Formula 3, abbreviated as F3, is a third-tier class of open-wheel formula racing. The various championships held in Europe, Australia, South America and Asia form an important step for many prospective Formula One dr ...

car in 1997. MRF in collaboration with

Maruti Māruti can refer to: * Maruti (मारुति), a Sanskrit name referring to Hanuman, son of the Hindu wind god, Pawan Dev * Maruti Suzuki, a joint sector industry of The Indian Government and Japanese automaker Suzuki Motor Corporation Se ...

established the Formula Maruti racing, a single-seater, open wheel class motorsport racing event for race cars made in India.

MRF Challenge MRF Challenge is an open-wheel motorsport formula based in India organized by Madras Motor Sports Club Madras Motor Sports Club is an Indian auto racing club founded in 1952 and based in Chennai, India. Madras Motor Sports Club with it ...

is a Formula 2000 open-wheel motorsport formula based series organized by

Madras Motor Sports Club Madras Motor Sports Club is an Indian auto racing club founded in 1952 and based in Chennai, India. Madras Motor Sports Club with its history of over 50 years is the reason that Chennai can be called the epicentre of motor racing in India. M ...

in association with MRF.

Narain Karthikeyan Kumar Ram Narain Karthikeyan (born 14 January 1977) is an Indian racing driver. He was the first Indian driver to compete in Formula One. He has previously competed in A1GP, and the Le Mans Series. He has won multiple races in A1GP, British ...

and

Karun Chandhok Karun Chandhok (born 19 January 1984) is an Indian racing driver and television presenter who last competed in Formula E for Mahindra Racing. Previously, Chandhok has competed for Hispania Racing in Formula One in . Before this, he drove in t ...

, the only drivers from to represent India in Formula 1 were born in Chennai.

Motor racing Motorsport, motorsports or motor sport is a global term used to encompass the group of competitive sporting events which primarily involve the use of motorized vehicles. The terminology can also be used to describe forms of competition of tw ...

events are held at the Sriperumbudur track for cars and the

Sholavaram Cholavaram, also spelled Sholavaram, is a suburb north of Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. It is popular as Sholavaram and is also known for the Cholavaram lake. Adjoining the lake, there was an defunct Air Force Airfield which was used as a moto ...

track for motorcycles. Races of the FISSME class, 1300 CC class and 1600 CC class are held regularly in Irungattukottai.

Horse racing

The Guindy Race Course for horse racing was set up in 1777. The city also has a pigeon-racing culture that started in the 1970s and now has 11 clubs and 400 racing enthusiasts.

Football

Football is a popular sport in schools. Football matches are played at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in

. The

Indian Super League The Indian Super League (ISL) is an Indian professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the Indian football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. Organised by the All India Football Federat ...

team

Chennaiyin FC Chennaiyin Football Club is an Indian professional football club based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. The club competes in the Indian Super League, the top flight of Indian football. The club was founded in August 2014 during the inaugural season o ...

, and former

I-League The I-League (known as Hero I-League for sponsorship ties with Hero MotoCorp) is the second-tier men's professional football competition of the Indian football league system. It is currently contested by 12 clubs across the country with the win ...

winning club Chennai City FC are based in

. The city is also home of another football club Indian Bank RC, that previously competed in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ma ...

. On the 5th of February 2019, it was reported in both the Swiss and Indian newspapers that Chennai City FC (CCFC) are all set to sell 35 per cent of the club's stake to Swiss club

FC Basel Fussball Club Basel 1893, widely known as FC Basel, FCB, or just Basel, is a Swiss football club based in Basel, in the Canton of Basel-Stadt. Formed in 1893, the club has been Swiss national champions 20 times, Swiss Cup winners 13 times, a ...

. The Swiss Champions League regulars will also invest 20m euros in CCFC. FC Basel will also have a player exchange program, including first team players, with CCFC and help the club with technical know how.

Athletics and aquatics

Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium Chennai panorama

Athletic Athletic may refer to: * An athlete, a sportsperson * Athletic director, a position at many American universities and schools * Athletic type, a physical/psychological type in the classification of Ernst Kretschmer * Athletic of Philadelphia, a ...

competitions are held at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, which seats 40,000. The complex also houses a multipurpose indoor stadium with a

seating capacity Seating capacity is the number of people who can be seated in a specific space, in terms of both the physical space available, and limitations set by law. Seating capacity can be used in the description of anything ranging from an automobile th ...

of 8,000 which hosts various competitions including

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

and

table tennis Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...

. The Velachery Aquatic Complex seats 4,000 and hosts various water sports. Chennai was the venue of the SAF Games in 1995.

Chess

Chess is a popular board game in the city. It has been called the "Mecca of Chess" in India, producing more grandmasters than any other city in India. Most popularly, Viswanathan Anand, the five-time

world chess champion The World Chess Championship is played to determine the world champion in chess. The current world champion is Magnus Carlsen of Norway, who has held the title since 2013. The first event recognized as a world championship was the 1886 match ...

, is from Chennai. It is the hometown of prominent coaches Ramesh RB, five-time olympiad team captain, and

Srinath Narayanan Srinath Narayanan (born 14 February 1994) is an Indian chess player. He was awarded the title of grandmaster (chess), Grandmaster by FIDE in August 2017. Biography Srinath Narayanan was born and brought up in Chennai. He started playing ches ...

, three-time olympiad team captain (twice in online olympiad).

Manuel Aaron Manuel Aaron (born 30 December 1935) is the first Indian chess master in the second half of the 20th century. He dominated chess in India in the 1960s to the 1980s, was the national champion of India nine times between 1959 and 1981. He is I ...

, India's first International Master, and S. Vijayalakshmi, India's first Woman Grandmaster (WGM), both hail from Chennai. It is home to super-GMs

Krishnan Sasikiran Krishnan Sasikiran (Tamil: கிருஷ்ணன் சசிகிரண்; born 7 January 1981) is an Indian chess grandmaster. He was one of Viswanathan Anand's seconds in the World Chess Championship 2013. Chess career Born in Madra ...

, Adhiban Baskaran, and young talents R Praggnanandhaa and D Gukesh. Other national champions from Chennai are Aravindh Chithambaram, Karthikeyan Murali,

S. P. Sethuraman Sethuraman Panayappan Sethuraman (born 25 February 1993 in Chennai)G. Akash in the open section, and Aarthie Ramaswamy in the women's section.

Other

Chennai is home to popular

Table tennis Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...

players Sharath Kamal and Subramanian Raman, both gold medalists at the

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930 British Empire Game ...

and winners of the

Arjuna award The Arjuna Award, officially known as Arjuna Awards for Outstanding Performance in Sports and Games, is the second-highest sporting honour of India, the highest being the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award. The award is named after Arjuna, on ...

. The Chennai Sepak Takraw League is a major attraction in Chennai for the sport of

Sepak Takraw Sepak takraw, or Sepaktakraw, also called kick volleyball, is a team sport played with a ball made of rattan or synthetic plastic between two teams of two to four players on a court resembling a badminton court. It is similar to volleyball a ...

, players from

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a state in southern India. It is the tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu is the home of the Tamil people, whose Tamil languag ...

participate in four teams in this league. The Tamil Nadu men's team is one of the leading teams in India and many players from Tamil Nadu have represented India. Chennai is home to a

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the Comparison of rugby league and rugby union, two codes of ru ...

team called the Chennai Cheetahs and was founded in 1997 by four software professionals. It was All India Champion in 2004 and 2006 and also won the All India sevens in 2005 and the South India ten in 2007. India's only Arjuna awardee for

Carrom Carrom is a tabletop game of Indian origin in which players flick discs, attempting to knock them to the corners of the board. The game is very popular in the Indian subcontinent, and is known by various names in different languages. In Sou ...

and two-time world champion, Maria Irudayam and the present women's world champion Ilavazhagi are natives of Chennai. There is also a growing enthusiasm in

Parkour Parkour () is an athletic training discipline or sport in which practitioners (called ''traceurs'') attempt to get from point A to point B in the fastest and most efficient way possible, without assisting equipment and often while performing ...

& Freerunning which is fueled by the "Chennai Parkour" and "Parkour Circle" groups. The Madras Boat Club, founded in 1867, hosts rowing competitions. The city has two 18-hole

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping ...

courses: the Cosmopolitan Club and the Gymkhana Club golf course, both of which were established in the late 19th century. Private golf courses include the proposed one at Hirco Palace Gardens at Oragadam, a western suburb of Chennai, which features an architectural canopy to protect the golfers from sun and rain and a combination of Par 3,4 and 5 holes each with its unique combination of bunker, water and vegetation hazards. The 50-acre course stretches out to over 2,500 meters (an 18-hole equivalent of 5000 meters/5500 yards). Chennai was the venue for the first

Commonwealth Junior Fencing Championships The Commonwealth Junior and Cadet Fencing Championships, for fencers under 20 years of age (Junior) or under 17 years of age (cadet), are held every three years. are managed by the Commonwealth Fencing Federation 2006 The Championships were firs ...

held in 2006.

Teams

Notes

External links

Tamil Nadu Sports Development Authority

Chennai Sepak Takraw League official website

Chennai Parkour official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sport In Chennai