Theatre of dreams to go to dust

Brisbane: The Woolloongabba, or simply the Gabba for cricket fans across the world, may just be hosting India for one last time in a Test match. As consistent rain washed out all but 13.2 overs of the opening day's play of the third Test here on Saturday, it was hard to fathom that a venue which is a theatre to many a cricketing drama, will soon be razed down to earth.

Cricket Australia (CA) is looking for a new stadium with better facilities and the 2032 Olympics, which will be held in Brisbane, provides them an opportunity to do so.  

The Gabba’s status as one of Australia's top Test venues took a hit when the series opener against India went to Perth’s Optus Stadium instead. For years, Australia have hosted their summer series opener at the Gabba where the visiting team's spirit would be left broken.

Incidentally, WACA had to abandon its old but historic stadium for the bigger Optus Stadium five years ago.   

According to the Australian media, the CA and Brisbane Lions, the Australian rules football team that also hosts its matches at the Gabba, authorities have submitted a proposal to the Queensland government as part of its 100-day Olympic venue review.

The Brisbane Olympics presented "a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to develop a world-class stadium that delivers strong legacy benefits for Queensland, by providing cricket and football fans with the facilities that they deserve,”  outgoing CA chief Nick Hockley was quoted to have said in the Australian media.

If everything goes according to the plan, the new stadium will come up at Victoria Park. While it's unsettling for cricket tragics to see a venerated stadium with so many fond memories being taken down, that's the order of the world we live in.

That's an overwhelming feeling among Queenslanders as well. 

"There are a lot of memories associated with the ground but it's inadequate in so many ways, including parking," rues Brisbane-based senior sports journalist Robert Craddick. "We are No. 5 in the Test venue picking order in Australia, that's heart-breaking too. We understand the feelings associated with the ground, but we need to keep pace with the world," he adds. 

The Gabba is the first venue which witnessed the first tie ever in Test cricket's history that compelled Don Bradman to say: "The greatest thing that's ever happened to cricket."

Saturday (December 14) happened to be the 64th anniversary of the first tied Test.    

For Indian cricket fans, the ground holds a special place in their heart. It's the venue of their greatest overseas win.

Before that epochal win on their tour of 2020-21 -- a result that helped them clinch the series after being 36ed in the first Test in Adelaide -- India had come close to winning two matches. 

In 1968, in pursuit of a daunting target of 395, India came close to winning the match as Motganhalli Jaisimha led the visitors' charge with a century (101). With Rusi Surti (64), skipper MAK Pataudi (48) and Chandu Borde (63) coming up with meaty contributions, India threatened to pull off an improbable win before falling to a bout of nerves. Their innings folded up at 355 as Australia won by 39 runs.

Interestingly, Jaisimha had landed in Brisbane on the eve of the Test match as a replacement for, bizarrely enough, an injured BS Chandrasekhar. Despite little acclimatisation time and jet lag, the stylish Hyderabadi scored 74 in the first innings and the century in the second!       

A decade later in December 1977, Sunil Gavaskar's 113 at the top and Syed Kirmani (55) and Bishan Singh Bedi's cameo (26) towards the end had brought India to the cusp of a famous win in a chase of 341 but agonisingly fell short of 16 runs.

Some of the current Indian team members have fond memories of their win the last time they toured here. They wouldn't want to change it for anything.