MCA Announces ₹500-Crore Fund for Mumbai Grassroots Cricket
The Mumbai Cricket Association has put serious money behind a familiar promise: build from the bottom.
At its annual general meeting at Wankhede Stadium on Friday, the MCA committed a massive ₹500-crore corpus to develop grassroots cricket in the city over the next decade, with a clear focus on school, college and maidan cricket.
“For grassroots cricket, we decided to allocate a corpus fund of ₹500 crores,” MCA president Ajinkya Naik said after the meeting. “In the last AGM, we contributed ₹100 crores and this time we did increase it to ₹500 crores for our grassroots cricketers, clubs like maidan clubs, school clubs and college clubs.”
The decision marks a steep escalation from the existing ₹100-crore fund, signalling a long-term financial framework rather than a short burst of spending.
A Fixed-Deposit Future for Mumbai’s Maidans
This isn’t a splash-the-cash scheme. It’s an endowment.
The association plans to add ₹40 crore every year for the next 10 years to build the ₹500-crore corpus. The principal will stay locked, with only the interest used to support the game at its base. That interest will be distributed among affiliated clubs across the city.
“It’s like an endowment fund. You keep this ₹500 crores in a fixed deposit, and from that fixed deposit, the interest gets distributed. That is for providing kits, facilities, etc. So it depends on the clubs and how they want to use it. Sometimes they use it for logistics, sometimes they use it for cricket equipment, so there are different ways,” Naik explained.
The model hands power to the clubs. Maidan outfits, school teams and college sides will decide whether to channel the funds into basic gear, practice facilities, travel, or other cricketing needs. For a city where many future internationals first walked onto uneven maidans with shared kits and borrowed pads, that flexibility could be crucial.
Honouring Icons at Wankhede
The AGM did not stop at finances. It also turned to legacy.
Three lounges at Wankhede will soon carry some of Mumbai cricket’s most storied names: Sachin Tendulkar, Madhav Mantri and Ajinkya Rahane. A committee has been formed to identify and finalise the dedicated spaces for these lounges within the stadium.
The association is also moving ahead with plans to install a statue of Dilip Vengsarkar inside the Wankhede complex, adding another layer to the ground’s growing gallery of Mumbai greats. For a venue that has witnessed World Cup finals and farewell Test hundreds, these touches deepen the connection between the modern arena and the city’s rich cricketing heritage.
Waiting on Delhi, Aligned with BCCI
On the administrative front, the MCA kept its cards close to the chest regarding the proposed National Sports Governance Act, 2025. The Act has become a talking point among sports bodies after a recent query from the Supreme Court, but Mumbai’s stance is firmly aligned with the national board.
“We have not discussed it. We will go by the BCCI decision,” Naik said.
For now, the MCA’s big statement lies not in policy debates but in hard numbers: a ₹500-crore bet that the next generation of Mumbai cricketers will emerge stronger from better-funded maidans, schools and colleges—and that Wankhede will continue to be both their stage and their inspiration.
