Popular games and sports in Pune include athletics, cricket, basketball, badminton, field hockey, football, tennis, kabaddi, paragliding, kho-kho, rowing, and chess. The Pune International Marathon is an annual marathon conducted in Pune. The 2008 Commonwealth Youth Games were held in the city at the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex in Balewadi.The Chhatrapati Shivaji Stadium in the mangalwar peth area of the city is the venue for hosting wrestling and other traditional sports.
Cricket
Cricket is played between clubs affiliated with the Maharashtra Cricket Association, which maintains a domestic cricket team (the Maharashtra cricket team). This team, one of three based in the state of Maharashtra, competes in interstate matches and leagues such as the Ranji Trophy. The Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium used to be the venue for National and One Day International matches until 2012. This stadium is named after the first Prime Minister of Independent India, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru.
An Indian Premier League cricket team based in Pune began play in 2011. The team, named Pune Warriors India, was bought for ₹17.02 billion or $370 million. It was the most expensive team in the Indian Premier League, and was owned by the Sahara Group. This team was later expelled from the league before the 7th season of the IPL started due to financial issues between Sahara Group and IPL.[216] As a home ground for the Pune Warriors, the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium (with a
seating
capacity
of 37,000) was built in Gahunje on the Mumbai – Pune express way and was inaugurated on 1 April 2012. Called the Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium earlier (after the founder of Sahara Group), it was renamed to Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in 2013. The stadium has since been used by the Maharashtra state team and also hosted international cricket – T20s, ODIs, and a Test Match.[217]
In Indian Premier League, a new franchise from Pune, Rising Pune Supergiant, played for two seasons, 2016 and 2017. The team is owned by Sanjiv Goenka's RPG Group.
Football
FC Pune City is an Indian Super League football club in Pune, Maharashtra.which plays in the Indian Super League. The club was formed in 2014 with a philosophy to provide stimulus to the growth and development of football in the state of Maharashtra and to participate in the inaugural season of the Indian Super League.The team is owned by Rajesh Wadhawan Group, its promoters Mr. Kapil Wadhawan and Mr. Dheeraj Wadhawan and actor Arjun Kapoor.
The philosophy behind the inception of the club was to promote and develop the game of football in the city of Pune right from the grassroots levels onwards. FC Pune City aims to be the club which players passionately aspire to be a part of and a club to whom fans pledge their loyalties.
In 2016, FC Pune City became the only professional football club in India to have teams which participated at all levels of professional football; Senior Team (ISL), U-18 Team (I-League U-18), U- 16 Team, U-14 Team and the Women’s Team.
Bharat FC was a football based in Pune. The club, which played Indian Football League, was founded by Kalyani Group in 2014.
DSK Shivajians Football Club is an Indian football club based in Pune, Maharashtra. DSK Shivajians was founded in 1987 and in 2013 they played their first ever national season in the 2013 I-League 2nd Division, their intention was to place the team in the top tier of Indian football (the I-League). English club Liverpool announced a partnership with DSK Shivajians in India. The partnership is pertinent in the academy setup, with academy players trained by coaches representing Liverpool playing for DSK Shivajians U19.
Poona District Football Association (PDFA) is established in year 1972 with motive to create a platform for youths for developing, nurturing and to promote the game at grass root level. PDFA is successful in nurturing and producing many young aspirants. At present there are 4 divisions under the PDFA with the total of about more than 100 teams registered.
Other sports
Pune has basketball at the Deccan Gymkhana club and at Fergusson College.[219] The city is home to the Pune Peshwas, runners-up at the 2015 UBA Pro Basketball League season.The 2008 Common wealth youth games were also conducted in Pune in the Balewadi stadium.
The National Education Foundation organises Enduro3, a cross country adventure race in Pune. It is normally a two- or three-day event with activities like cycling, trekking, river-crossing, and rifle shooting.[220] The city has been host to the 2009 FIVB Men's Junior World Championship.
Pune Race Course, located in Pune Cantonment, was built in 1830 over 118.5 acres (0.480 km2) of land. The land is controlled by the Indian Army. The racing season is from July to October every year. The Royal Western India Turf Club manages the racecourse. The course has two training tracks and two racing surfaces. Major racing events include the Pune Derby, RWITC Invitational, Independence Cup, and the Southern Command Cup.[221]
Pune Skatepark is a skateboarding park built in the Sahakarnagar area, consisting of an eight-foot bowl in a 3,000 square foot flatground. It is the first skatepark in India built by the government with approximately seventy lakhs spent on the project.[222]
Names of various sports teams which represent Pune in sports leagues across India :
Sports institutions
Prominent sporting institutions in Pune include the Nehru Stadium, the Deccan Gymkhana, the PYC Hindu Gymkhana, The Poona Golf Club, The Poona Cricket Club, and the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex at Balewadi. The Nehru Stadium was the home ground of the Maharashtra Cricket Team, and has hosted many prominent cricket events, including one of the matches in the 1996 Cricket World Cup. Now the home ground of Maharashtra Cricket Team is the State-of-Art Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium at Gahunje which is also the headquarters of Maharashtra Cricket Association. The Deccan Gymkhana has hosted Davis Cup matches on several occasions. The facility at Balewadi hosted the National Games in 1994 as well as the 2008 Commonwealth Youth Games. The Royal Connaught Boat Club is one of several boating clubs on the Mula-Mutha river.
Prominent sportspersons hailing from Pune include cricketer D. B. Deodhar, Chandu Borde, father-son cricketing duo Hemant and Hrishikesh Kanitkar, tennis players Radhika Tulpule, Gaurav Natekar and Nitin Kirtane, and table-tennis player Sujay Ghorpade. Abhijit Kunte, Isar Qureshi, and Pravin Thipsay are chess grandmasters and national champions. Dhanraj Pillay is ex-captain of the Indian national field hockey team.
When the Elite Football League of India was introduced in August 2011, Pune was noted as one of eight cities to be awarded a team for the inaugural season, although the team's games will be played in Balewadi. All 56 games of EFLI's opening season will be played at the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex, which will be retrofitted to host the sport. Named the Pune Marathas, it will be Pune's first professional American football franchise.
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