After being utilised as a parking lot, the historic ground of Madras Medical College (MMC) is now getting a facelift. It will soon have playing fields for cricket, football, hockey, a synthetic basketball court and an athletic track.
In an effort to restore the ground to its past glory, the administration of MMC had taken up works recently. A few years ago, the ground started to be used as a parking lot mainly for cars of doctors, that drew flak among many students.
Historian V. Sriram said the MMC grounds was one of the pioneering grounds where hockey was played in the city. “It is definitely a historic ground. Hockey began in 1894 at the Madras Cricket Club. We do know that hockey matches were played from the 1920s, and MMC ground was one of the very important venues for hockey matches. In a way, it is good that the ground is going back to its sporting role and is not used for any other purpose,” he said.
He added there were four venues where hockey was being played earlier - South Indian Athletic Association, which was located behind Ripon Building, Madras Guard where the Pallavan Transport Corporation is located, Madras Cricket Club, which is now the Chepauk cricket stadium, and MMC ground. “The first two no longer existed,” he said, adding, “probably, legends such as Dhyan Chand could have played at MMC ground.”
Over the years, the ground turned into a full-fledged parking lot. A faculty member recounted that a few tournaments were held at the ground many years ago, and as space shrunk due to parking, students had to move outside for practice.
The continuous parking of vehicles also damaged the ground. “There were several pits. We have around 1,250 students in five batches and it is important that they have a space for sports activities. Realising this, we started to stop vehicles from parking here. We found that outsiders were encroaching the space by parking their vehicles. After stopping parking of vehicles, we took up levelling works from November 2020,” E. Theranirajan, dean of MMC, said.
A committee comprising faculty members and a sports club was formed to look into the works. All playfields including for cricket, football, hockey, volleyball, basketball, ball badminton and an athletic track were coming up, while the gallery and space for practising cricket would also be readied, he said.
A faculty member involved in coordinating works said, “The ground had lost its base, and had many depressions and elevations. A proper levelling was needed to create playfields with an athletic track. Hence, we started filling the pits with sand and proceeded to level the ground with red gravel. Simultaneously, garbage and debris, which were dumped on the sides of the ground were removed, making us realise that the actual space was much wider than we initially thought. The ground approximately measures 1,65,000 square feet.”
MMC alumni and students were enthusiastic about the renovation work. “We are receiving support from MMC alumni who are studying in other States and abroad. Our students have been supportive and came forward to ensure protecting the ground by restricting entry of vehicles and putting up barricades. The basketball court that was damaged earlier is getting ready and will be a synthetic one. We might have a 380 metre-long athletic track in the available space,” the faculty member added.
