Considered to be the epi-centre for many of the India’s biggest cricket stars of yesteryears and current ones, national and international ones in their formative years, the Maidan (ground) in Mumbai has long been considered the birthplace of India's passion for cricket since the late nineteenth century. Some  of them from Mumbai include Indian ex and current captains of the likes of Sunil Gavaskar, Ravi Shashtri, Dilip Vengeskar, Sachin Tendulkar, Rohit Sharma to name a few.

Often a collection of cricket pitches spread over a vast land of dusty open space, these grounds have been patronized by various sports clubs many of whom are affiliated to Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) for conducting coaching camps and various tournaments round the year. These include the likes of Giles and Harris Shield  Inter-school Cricket tournament to the popular Dr H D Kanga Cricket League conducted in the second half of the monsoon season to the MCA President and Corporate Cups among others.

Communities and the general masses too converge on these Maidan to pursue their passion for the game and bonding when these maidens are not used

In order to ensure the sanity of these maidan’s, MCA, the governing body of the game in Mumbai and surrounding areas will be conducting a ‘Cleanliness Drive’ across the cricket grounds in the city.

To be held on the auspicious occasion of ‘Gudi Padwa’, slated to be celebrated on Tuesday 9^th April, 2024, the first of this initiative, will be organised across five popular locations viz. Cross Maidan, Azad Maidan, Oval Maidan, Shivaji Park and Dadkar Maidan at Matunga initially.

“Gudi Padwa is widely celebrated in Maharashtra and it signifies the arrival of spring and the reaping of rabi crops. Hence we (MCA) decided to step up to clean up the playing areas for our cricketers as part of ‘Gudi Padwa Special Cleanliness Drive’ venture. Our aim is to ensure fresher and cleaner surroundings for the young cricketers, the future of Mumbai and Indian cricket,  ” said MCA, Secretary, Ajinkya Naik

He further added, “I request all cricketers, young, old and those retired to join MCA in this cleanliness drive. Together we can give our young talented players clean grounds to play.”

The MCA drive will start the cleaning drive from Cross Maidan at 8.30 am.