The Andheri Sports Complex also known as Shahaji Raje Krida Sankul is a multi-purpose facility located on

Veera Desai Road Veera Desai Road is a part of Andheri – the largest of Mumbai's suburbs in the state of Maharashtra, India. It is also linked to some famous landmarks of Andheri i.e. Andheri Recreation Club, Andheri Sports Complex – where most national leve ...

Andheri Andheri (Help:IPA/Marathi, �n̪d̪ʱeɾiː is a suburb situated in Western Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. Government and politics For administrative purposes, Andheri is bifurcated into Andheri (west) and Andheri (east). Andheri (west) comes ...

West,

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, 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 by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. It was built in 1988 at ₹30 crore for schools that lacked the necessary infrastructure to hold sports meets. The complex is used for both national level sports tournaments like squash, boxing, tennis and karate. The sports complex has an olympic size swimming pool and a diving pool with 4 diving levels. In 2016, it was redeveloped to include a modern football stadium in accordance with FIFA guidelines and known as

Mumbai Football Arena Mumbai Football Arena is a association football, football stadium in Mumbai, India. It is located in the Andheri Sports Complex. It is one of the few football-only built stadiums in the country. Routine usage It has served as the home stadium ...

Overview

The

Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), or the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) is the governing civic body of Mumbai, the capital city of Maharashtra. Salman Khan Is Now Brand Ambassador of BMC from 2016. The BMC is India ...

opened the World Cup cricket gallery for public viewing in January 2012. The gallery displays statues of the Indian players who were part of the teams that won the Cricket World Cups for India in 1983 and 2011. The gallery also showcases memorabilia like cricket kits, photographs and cricket bats bearing autographs of prominent players since the World Cup event started in 1975. The gallery was inaugurated by legendary cricketer

Sunil Gavaskar Sunil Manohar "Sunny" Gavaskar (Marathi pronunciation: Help:IPA/Marathi, uniːl ɡaːʋəskəɾ born 10 July 1949), is a former captain of the Indian national cricket team who represented India national cricket team, India and Mumbai crick ...

. A number of

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, is primarily produced in Mumbai. The popular term Bollywood is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (former name of Mumbai) and "Cinema of the United States, Hollywood". The in ...

films have been shot in the complex and its stadium has been used for commercial entertainment programmes like the

Star Screen Awards The Screen Awards was an annual awards ceremony held in India, honouring professional excellence in Bollywood. The nomination and award selection was done by a panel of distinguished professionals from the industry. The awards were introduced ...

, pop music concerts like those of

Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Michael Jackson, one of the most culturally significan ...

, who performed here on 1 November 1996 as part of his

HIStory World Tour The ''HIS''tory World Tour was the third and final worldwide solo concert tour by American singer and songwriter Michael Jackson, covering Europe, Asia, Oceania, Africa and North America. The tour included a total of 82 concerts spanning the gl ...

in front of 65,000 people.

Bon Jovi Bon Jovi is an American Rock music, rock band formed in Sayreville, New Jersey in 1983. The band consists of singer Jon Bon Jovi, keyboardist David Bryan, drummer Tico Torres, guitarists John Shanks and Phil X, percussionist Everett Bradley ...

also performed to a sold-out crowd on their 1995 These Days Tour. Charity organizations also make use of the center. Actor

Salman Khan Abdul Rashid Salim Salman Khan (; born 27 December 1965) is an Indian actor, film producer, and television personality who predominantly works in Hindi films. In a career spanning over three decades, his awards include two National Film Awa ...

performed at a charity event at the center in October to raise money for the victims of the

2008 Bihar flood The 2008 Bihar flood was one of the most disastrous floods in the history of Bihar, an impoverished and densely populated state in India. The Koshi embankment near the Indo-Nepal border (at Kusaha VDC, Sunsari district, Nepal) broke on 18 Aug ...

. A football stadium called

is the project which has been completed in time for the FIFA Under-17 World Cup in 2017 The stadium hosted a celebrity charity match, termed as "Celebrity Classico 2016" on 4 June 2016. It took place at the Mumbai Football Arena, Andheri Sports Complex, to generate funds for charitable initiatives in which

Virat Kohli Virat Kohli (born 5 November 1988) is an Indian Cricket, international cricketer who plays One Day International, ODI cricket for the India national cricket team, national team and is a former Captain (cricket), captain in all formats. He is a ...

and

Abhishek Bachchan Abhishek Bachchan (; born 5 February 1976) is an Indian actor and film producer known for his work in Hindi films. Part of the Bachchan family, he is the son of actors Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan. From 2012 to 2016, Bachchan appeared in ...

are involved. Bachchan didn't play in the match due to back injury and his team was led by

Ranbir Kapoor Ranbir Kapoor (; born 28 September 1982) is an Indian actor known for his work in Hindi-language films. He is one of the highest-paid actors of Hindi cinema and has featured in ''Forbes India'' Celebrity 100 list since 2012. Kapoor is the re ...

. The match ended in a 2–2 draw. The

has decided to keep the ground only for sports centric events. They have started work on the turf towards creating a football stadium. The stadium will have a capacity of 18,000 seats.

Gallery

File:Andheri Sports Complex Diving Pool.jpg, Andheri Sports Complex Diving Pool File:Andheri Sports Complex Olympic Size Swimming pool.jpg, Andheri Sports Complex Olympic Size Swimming pool File:Andheri Sports Complex Swimming Pool.jpg, Andheri Sports Complex Swimming Pool File:Wug0reym7cv91.jpg,

at the Andheri sports complex stadium

References

External links

* Sports venues in Mumbai Swimming venues in India Andheri Sports venues completed in 1988 1988 establishments in Maharashtra 20th-century architecture in India {{India-sports-venue-stub