The Jawaharlal Nehru International Stadium, locally known as Kaloor Stadium, is a multi-purpose stadium in Kochi, Kerala, India. The stadium has a capacity of 60,000 spectators. For

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 Federa ...

matches it is restricted to 39,000. The stadium is widely touted to have hosted one of the loudest audiences for association football matches in the world. The stadium has played host to a number of international cricket and football matches but after 2014 it didn't hold any cricket match due to ISL. The extensive grounds of the stadium serve as venue for important exhibitions, cinema events and political rallies in the city. The most innovative aspect of the stadium is its unique lighting towers of 2 kW Floodlights which when switched on fully can provide lighting levels for HD telecast. The Structure of the tower is itself one of a kind in India.

Greater Cochin Development Authority Greater Cochin Development Authority (GCDA) is the statutory body overseeing the development of the city of Kochi in the state of Kerala, India. Headquartered at Kadavanthra, GCDA oversees the development of the major part of Greater Cochin are ...

leased out the Jawaharlal Nehru International stadium at Kaloor to the Kerala Cricket Association (KCA) for a period of 30 years. The stadium acts as the home ground for teams including

Kerala cricket team The Kerala cricket team is a domestic cricket team based in the Indian state of Kerala. It is in the Elite Group of the Ranji Trophy, the premier first class cricket tournament in India. It was known as Travancore-Cochin cricket team until 195 ...

Kerala Blasters FC Kerala Blasters Football Club (), commonly referred to as The Blasters, is an Indian professional football club based in Kochi, Kerala, that competes in the Indian Super League, the top tier of football in India. The club was established i ...

(

). Stadium holds the privilege of having the fifth loudest crowd (128 db) in the world, during ISL 2016 final match where Kerala Blasters played against Atletico de Kolkata. Kochi was one of the six host cities for

2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup The 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup was the 17th FIFA U-17 World Cup, a biennial international football tournament contested by men's under-17 national teams. Organised by FIFA, the tournament took place in India between 6 and 28 October 2017, after th ...

held in India. As of 19 August 2017, the stadium has hosted 10 ODIs.

History

Early years and football's popularity

The Kaloor Stadium was originally constructed as a cricket stadium. But considering that Kerala is one of the few regions in India where football enjoys considerable popularity it was used for football matches also. Indeed, in a match between India and Iraq in 1997, approximately 1,00,000 spectators filled up the venue, thus overcrowding it, which remains a record at this place. This was in the

Nehru Cup International Football Tournament The Nehru Cup was an international association football tournament organised by the All India Football Federation (AIFF), named after the first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru. It was launched in 1982, but was not held from 1998 to ...

in 1997, which was the first tournament at the venue. The stadium won several laurels for being constructed in a timely manner. The stadium was completed under the watchful eyes of late

V. Joseph Thomas IPS Vattavayalil Joseph Thomas (30 November 1941 – 10 February 2018), known simply as Joseph Thomas in police and political circles, was an officer of Indian Police Service, who served as the Director General of Kerala Police. Personal life V. Jo ...

who was the head of the

. He was a huge fan of soccer from his college days at

St. Thomas College, Palai St. Thomas College, Pala is a government aided college of higher education located in Pala town, Kerala, India. It was founded on 7 August 1950 by the Syro-Malabar Catholic Eparchy of Palai. The college is affiliated to Mahatma Gandhi Unive ...

and also served as the patron of the Kerala State Athletics Association. The stadium was inaugurated by then

President of India The president of India ( IAST: ) is the head of state of the Republic of India. The president is the nominal head of the executive, the first citizen of the country, as well as the commander-in-chief of the Indian Armed Forces. Droupadi Murm ...

Shankar Dayal Sharma Shankar Dayal Sharma (; 19 August 1918 – 26 December 1999) was an Indian lawyer and politician from the state of Madhya Pradesh who served as the ninth President of India, from 1992 to 1997. Born in Bhopal, Sharma studied at Agra, Allahaba ...

in 1996. It has 1.3 kilometres in outer circle.

International cricket

After 1998, football went down and

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 ...

took the centre-stage for many years, drawing sell-out and high money grossing games. In fact, the highest money grosser at the venue was made in a cricket

ODI ODI may refer to: * Object Design, Incorporated, a defunct database software company * One Day International, cricket match * Open Data Institute, a UK not-for-profit company promoting open data * Open Data-Link Interface, an implementation of ...

match between India and its arch-rival

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

in April 2005. The first

played on this ground was between India and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

on 1 April 1998. Kaloor stadium hosted the first match India played after

Sachin Tendulkar Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar (; ; born 24 April 1973) is an Indian former international cricketer who captained the Indian national team. He is regarded as one of the greatest batsmen in the history of cricket. He is the all time highest run-sco ...

's retirement. The pavilion was renamed as Sachin Tendulkar pavilion as an honour to him before this match between India and West Indies on 21 November 2013 which India won by 6 wickets. The stadium underwent a massive renovation including a modern turf, an aesthetic modern roofing and a four-lane road from the south side of the stadium. The first

Indian Premier League The Indian Premier League (IPL), also known as TATA IPL for sponsorship reasons, is a men's T20 franchise cricket league of India. It is annually contested by ten teams based out of seven Indian cities and three Indian states. The leagu ...

game at the stadium was on 9 April 2011, when the Kochi Tuskers Kerala hosted the

Royal Challengers Bangalore Royal Challengers Bangalore (often abbreviated as RCB) are a franchise cricket team based in Bangalore, Karnataka, that plays in the Indian Premier League (IPL). It was founded in 2008 by United Spirits and named after the company's liquor ...

. It was the first IPL match for the Kochi Tuskers. Five of their 2011 home games were played in this stadium, and the other two were played at the

Holkar Cricket Stadium The Holkar (Pronunciation: �o(ː)ɭkəɾ dynasty was a Maratha clan of Dhangar origin in India. The Holkars were generals under Peshwa Baji Rao I, and later became Maharajas of Indore in Central India as an independent member of the Marath ...

Indore Indore () is the largest and most populous city in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. It serves as the headquarters of both Indore District and Indore Division. It is also considered as an education hub of the state and is the only city to ...

. The stadium hosted the semi-final and final of the 2013 Duleep Trophy.

Return of football and the ISL

In 2011, Chirag United claimed the tenancy of the venue. However, the premier football club of India was still not able to fill up the stadium's massive capacity. Football returned to prominence at the venue after the launch of

in 2014. The stadium is the home ground to

Kerala Blasters Kerala Blasters Football Club (), commonly referred to as The Blasters, is an Indian professional football club based in Kochi, Kerala, that competes in the Indian Super League, the top tier of football in India. The club was established i ...

, co-owned by Cricket legend

, who has massive fan-following in the city. Some of the games involving the home team drew crowds in excess of 55,000 in the inaugural edition. The first

game at the stadium was on 6 November 2014, when the

hosted the

FC Goa Football Club Goa is an Indian professional football club based in Goa, that competes in the Indian Super League, the top flight of Indian football. The club was established on 26 August 2014. Nicknamed as '' Gaurs'', the club plays their h ...

. It was the first ISL match for the Kerala Blasters. The stadium had an average attendance of over 40,000 for the

matches in 2014. The game between Kerala Blasters FC and Chennaiyin FC saw 61,323 spectators on 30 November 2014. The stadium was the venue for

2013 Santosh Trophy Thirteen or 13 may refer to: * 13 (number), the natural number following 12 and preceding 14 * One of the years 13 BC, AD 13, 1913, 2013 Music * 13AD (band), an Indian classic and hard rock band Albums * ''13'' (Black Sabbath album), 2013 * ...

finals.

In popular culture

The famous "Maro Maro" song composed by

A.R. Rahman Allah Rakha Rahman (; born A. S. Dileep Kumar; 6 January 1967) is an Indian music composer, record producer, singer and songwriter, popular for his works in Indian cinema; predominantly in Tamil and Hindi films, with occasional forays in int ...

for the Tamil movie

Boys A boy is a young male human. The term is commonly used for a child or an adolescent. When a male human reaches adulthood, he is described as a man. Definition, etymology, and use According to the ''Merriam-Webster Dictionary'', a boy is "a ...

directed by Shankar, climax scenes of the Tamil movie

Velayudham ''Velayudham'' is a 2011 Indian Tamil-language superhero film written and directed by Mohan Raja. It stars Vijay in titular role with Genelia in the lead, while Hansika, Santhanam, Saranya Mohan, Soori, Abhimanyu Singh, and Vineet Kuma ...

starring Vijay, Malayalam movie Run Baby Run starring

Mohanlal Mohanlal Viswanathan (born 21 May 1960), known mononymously as Mohanlal, is an Indian actor, film producer, playback singer, film distributor, and director who predominantly works in Malayalam cinema besides also having sporadically app ...

and many other Indian Films were shot in the stadium.

ODI matches held

Indian Premier League

The cricket stadium in Kochi was expected to serve 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 ...

or the

as a home venue apart from

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 th ...

and

Bangalore Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...

for the initial IPL seasons. However both the franchises initially refused and later promised to reconsider the offer, fearing a decline in revenues. Eventually no matches of the first 3 IPL seasons were played in Kochi. The auction for expanding the initial eight franchises to ten for the 2011 season was held on 22 March 2010. Rendezvous Sports World made the second highest bid of 15333 million, and elected to base its team in Kochi. The first IPL match held at the stadium was between Kochi Tuskers Kerala and Royal Challengers Bangalore on 9 April 2011. The match was also Kochi Tuskers first ever IPL match.

ODI records at the venue

Batting * Highest Total: 321/6 (50 overs) by West Indies vs. India on 8 October 2014. * Lowest Total: 191 (48.3 overs) by India vs. Zimbabwe on 13 March 2002. * Most Runs :

Rahul Dravid Rahul Sharad Dravid (; born 11 January 1973) is an Indian cricket coach and former List of India national cricket captains, captain of the Indian national cricket team, Indian national team, currently serving as its head coach. Prior to his ...

(223 runs from 292 balls in 5 matches) * Highest Score:

Marlon Samuels Marlon Nathaniel Samuels (born 5 February 1981) is a former Jamaican cricketer who played internationally for the West Indies in all three formats, and a former ODI captain. He is a right-handed middle order batsman and an off-spinner. He was ...

(West Indies) 126* runs from 116 balls vs. India on 8 October 2014. * Average 1st innings total : 273 * Average 2nd innings total : 225 Bowling * Most Wickets :

(10 Wickets, 33 Overs, 4 Matches) * Best Bowling :

5/32 (India vs. Australia on 1 April 1998)

Highest partnerships by wicket

List of centuries

Key

* * denotes that the batsman was

not out In cricket, a batter is not out if they come out to bat in an innings and have not been dismissed by the end of an innings. The batter is also ''not out'' while their innings is still in progress. Occurrence At least one batter is not out at ...

. * Inns. denotes the number of the innings in the match. * Balls denotes the number of balls faced in an innings. * NR denotes that the number of balls was not recorded. * Parentheses next to the player's score denotes his century number at Edgbaston. * The column title Date refers to the date the match started. * The column title Result refers to the player's team result

One Day Internationals

List of Five Wicket Hauls

Key

One Day Internationals

IPL records at venue

* Most Runs :

Brendon McCullum Brendon Barrie McCullum (born 27 September 1981) is a cricket coach, commentator and former cricketer representing New Zealand, who played all formats, including as captain. McCullum was renowned for his quick scoring, notably recording the f ...

(Kochi) * Most Wickets :

Vinay Kumar Ranganath Vinay Kumar (born 12 February 1984) is a former cricketer who has represented India at Test, One Day International (ODI) and Twenty20 levels. He is a right-arm medium fast bowler who played domestic cricket for Karnataka and also i ...

(Kochi) (6) * Highest total in an innings :

(162/4) * Lowest total in an innings : Kochi Tuskers Kerala (74/10) * Highest Score: Virender Sehwag (Delhi Daredevils) vs Kochi Tuskers Kerala (80 runs from 47 balls) * Best Bowling : Ishant Sharma (5/12) vs. Kochi Tuskers Kerala * Highest partnership :

Sangakkara Kumara Chokshananda Sangakkara ( si, කුමාර් චොක්ශනාද සංගක්කාර; born 27 October 1977) is a Sri Lankan cricket commentator, former professional cricketer, Businessperson, businessman, ICC Cricket Hall o ...

and

Cameron White Cameron Leon White (born 18 August 1983) is an Australian former international cricketer who captained the national side in Twenty20 Internationals. A powerful middle order batsman and right-arm leg-spin bowler, White made his first-class cr ...

(90 runs off 69 balls)

Highest partnerships by wicket

Kerala Blasters FC

The stadium is the official home ground for the

since 2014. Kerala Blasters had won their first ISL home match against FC Goa for 1–0 conducted on 06/11/2014. The game between

FC and Chennaiyin FC saw 59,323 spectators on 30 November 2014.

has the highest average attendances (47,427) for football clubs outside of Europe in domestic league matches. In the inaugural season of Indian Super League,

finished fourth in the group stages with 19 points from 14 games and qualified for Semi-final after beating Pune City FC. Kerala Blasters FC was unbeaten in six of their seven home games. In semi-final which happened to be the last home match of this year for Kerala Blasters FC, Kerala Blasters FC won in emphatic fashion by trouncing toppers Chennaiyin FC with scoreline 3–0. One of the goals was scored by Malayali midfielder

Sushanth Mathew Sushanth Mathew (born 18 May 1981) is a retired Indian professional footballer who played as a defender or midfielder, who currently works as a technical director and coach in academies. Career Sushanth was born in the Ambalavayal, Wayanad, ...

away from 30 yards through a curling long-ranger, shot over renowned footballers Alessandro Nesta and Mikaël Silvestre and it became a proud and memorable moment for sports fans in Kerala. The opening ceremony of Hero

2017/18 was hosted in the stadium.

Chirag United Club Kerala

The 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 wi ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

team

Chirag United Club Kerala Viva Kerala Football Club (also known as Chirag United Club Kerala) was an Indian professional association football club based in the city of Kochi, Kerala, India. The club was originally formed in 2004, as ''Viva Kerala''. They participated ...

(erstwhile Viva Kerala) played their home matches in the stadium for the 2011–12 I-League season.

2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup

On 5 December 2013, the

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' (French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

Executive Committee chaired by FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter decided that host of 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup will be India upon evaluation of bid sent by

AIFF Audio Interchange File Format (AIFF) is an audio file format standard used for storing sound data for personal computers and other electronic audio devices. The format was developed by Apple Inc. in 1988 based on Electronic Arts' Interchange ...

with Kochi as one of the eight possible venues. Later, Chief Minister of Kerala Mr.Oommen Chandy stated that they will soon sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Sports Ministry in that regard after an exclusive cabinet meet on the issue. Government has appointed senior IAS officer Mr. APM Mohammed Hanish as Nodal Officer as per Fifa's direction. On December 11, 2014, FIFA team inspected the stadium and emphasised to improve the quality of pitch and need of bucket seats in the second tier of the stadium. With Kochi registering an average crowd of 47,000 for ISL, the city has gathered attention from the authorities in terms of attracting crowd. On 6 April 2015, AIFF cleared Kochi as one of the venues after receiving FIFA's technical committee report. Delhi, Mumbai, Guwahati, Goa and Kolkata are the other venues.

Kerala Strikers

The Celebrity Cricket League team

Kerala Strikers The Celebrity Cricket League (CCL) is an amateur men's cricket league in India. It consists of nine teams of film actors from nine major regional film industries of Indian cinema. The league commenced in 2011. Salman Khan is Brand Ambassador f ...

played its home matches in the stadium since 2012.

Accessibility

The Jawaharlal Nehru International Stadium is located in the heart of the city. It lies beside the Banerjee Road between Kaloor and

Palarivattom Palarivattom (MRC) is a region in the city of Kochi in the state of Kerala, India.Kochi City
...

, a common stretch among many city bus routes. The Stadium Link Road from the southern side allows access from

Thammanam Thammanam ( ml, തമ്മനം) is a region in the city of Kochi, in the state of Kerala State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State ...

and

Kathrikadavu Kathrikadavu is a region in the city of Kochi, in the state of Kerala, India. It lies almost midway between the two major intersections (junctions) in Kochi, namely Kaloor and Kadavanthra. Kathrikadavu is mainly a residential area, though o ...

, although there is no public transport along this route. The stadium is situated at from the North (Town) and South (Junction) railway stations respectively. All city buses passing through the Kaloor-

Palarivattom Palarivattom (MRC) is a region in the city of Kochi in the state of Kerala, India.Kochi City
...

stretch have a stop at the stadium. The JLN Stadium metro station of the Kochi Metro is situated right in front of the stadium. The presence of a prominent bus stop as well as a metro station makes it a prime location and one which can be easily accessed from any part of the city.

References

External links

360-degree view of stadium
{{Football stadiums in India Cricket grounds in Kerala Football venues in Kerala Sports venues in Kochi Chirag United Club Kerala Indian Super League stadiums 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup venues Kerala Blasters FC Tourist attractions in Kochi Sports venues completed in 1996 1996 establishments in Kerala Kochi Tuskers Kerala

History

Early years and football's popularity

International cricket

Return of football and the ISL

In popular culture

ODI matches held

Indian Premier League

ODI records at the venue

Highest partnerships by wicket

List of centuries

Key

One Day Internationals

List of Five Wicket Hauls

Key

One Day Internationals

IPL records at venue

Highest partnerships by wicket

Kerala Blasters FC

Chirag United Club Kerala

2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup

Kerala Strikers

Accessibility

See also

References

External links