Karnail Singh Stadium is a multipurpose sports venue located in

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

and is owned by the

Indian Railways Indian Railways (IR) is a statutory body under the ownership of Ministry of Railways, Government of India that operates India's national railway system. It manages the fourth largest national railway system in the world by size, with a tota ...

. Located next to the New Delhi Railway Station, the ground is used for

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competi ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

boxing Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermined ...

, and

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per side) and "doubles" (with two players p ...

. Apart from sports, the ground has been a venue for the

Terry Fox Run The Terry Fox Run is an annual non-competitive charity event held around the world to raise money for cancer research in commemoration of Canadian cancer activist Terry Fox and his Marathon of Hope. The event was founded in 1981 by Isadore Sha ...

, a charity event which was held in 2008.

History

Originally known as ''Paharganj Railways Stadium'', the ground was built in 1954 due to the efforts of ''Karnail Singh'', then

Chairman The chairperson, also chairman, chairwoman or chair, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the group ...

of the Railway board. In 1978, the

Railways Sports Promotion Board Railways Sports Promotion Board (RSPB) (originally known as Railways Sports Control Board) is a sports board run by the Indian Railways. It was formed as the Indian Railways Athletic Association in 1928. It promotes 30 sporting disciplines and ...

renamed the stadium as the ''Karnail Singh Stadium'' in his honour.

Sporting activities

The ground was the venue for an Athletics open meet in 1964 where

Paan Singh Tomar Paan Singh Tomar (1 January 1932 — 1 October 1981) was an Indian soldier, athlete, and later, ''Baaghi'' (rebel/outlaw). He served in the Indian Army, where his talent for running was discovered. He was a seven-time national steeplechase c ...

set a new national

steeplechase Steeplechase may refer to: * Steeplechase (horse racing), a type of horse race in which participants are required to jump over obstacles * Steeplechase (athletics), an event in athletics that derives its name from the steeplechase in horse racing ...

record. Karnail Singh Stadium hosted the ''National Weightlifting Championship'' in 2004. In 2008, the 56th ''National Kabaddi Championship'' was held at the ground. The ground hosts a boxing hall, which is used for training by boxers such as

Akhil Kumar Akhil Kumar (born 27 March 1981) is an Indian boxer who has won several international and national boxing awards. He practices an "open guarded" boxing style. In 2005, the Indian government gave him the Arjuna Award for his achievements in int ...

and hosted the ''National Boxing Championship'' in 2007. It was also used as a training venue prior to the ''Commonwealth Boxing Championship'' in 2010. The ground has been home to the

Railways cricket team Railways cricket team (also known as the Indian Railways) is a domestic cricket team in India representing Indian Railways. The team's home ground is East Coast Railway Stadium in Bhubaneswar and Karnail Singh Stadium in New Delhi. The team is ...

in the

Ranji Trophy The Ranji Trophy (also known as Mastercard Ranji Trophy for sponsorship reasons) is a domestic first-class cricket championship played in India between multiple teams representing regional and state cricket associations. Board of Control for Cr ...

for approximately five decades. Karnail Singh Stadium was the venue for the Ranji Trophy finals in 2002 when the Railways won the Ranji Trophy for the first time. In 2007, the Railways proposed to build a new dedicated cricket stadium to replace Karnail Singh Stadium as its home ground, citing lack and overuse of facilities. A unique feature of the ground is its old wooden green-board type scoreboard which is updated after each run is scored, unlike other manual ones which are updated in multiples of ten. Though the stadium has not hosted international men's cricket, it was one of the

1997 Women's Cricket World Cup The 1997 Women's Cricket World Cup, also known as the Hero Honda Women's World Cup, was the sixth edition of the Women's Cricket World Cup, held in India. With 32 matches between a record 11 teams across 25 cricket grounds, England, Australia, N ...

venues, hosting a

One Day International A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, currently 50, with the game lasting up to 9 hours. The Cricket World C ...

played by

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

and

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...

. In 1999, the ground was the venue for a veterans tournament, ''World Masters Series''.

Controversies

Karnail Singh Stadium was banned from hosting Ranji Trophy matches for the 2012-13 season by the BCCI after the pitch for a match between Railways and Saurashtra in the previous season was found to be of "poor condition". The Railway Sports Promotion Board was requested to host its matches at another venue in February 2012. RSPB has indicated that it will appeal the ban on Karnail Singh Stadium.

References

{{reflist Sports venues in Delhi Cricket grounds in Delhi Sport in Indian Railways 1954 establishments in India Sports venues completed in 1954