MCA Allocates Rs 500 Crore for Mumbai Cricket's Future
On a humid Friday at Wankhede, the Mumbai Cricket Association didn’t just conduct another annual general meeting. It laid down a financial marker that could shape the city’s cricket for the next decade.
The MCA has committed a staggering Rs 500 crore as a corpus for grassroots cricket in Mumbai, to be built up over the next 10 years. School cricket, college cricket, maidan clubs, the small coaching centres that feed the city’s giant talent pipeline – all sit at the heart of this plan.
“We decided to allocate a corpus fund of Rs 500 crores,” MCA president Ajinkya Naik said after the AGM. “In the last AGM, we contributed Rs 100 crores and this time we did increase it to Rs 500 crores for our grassroots cricketers, clubs like maidan clubs, school clubs and college clubs.”
The association already has Rs 100 crore parked for the same purpose. Now, it will add Rs 40 crore every year for the next decade to build the Rs 500-crore pot. The key detail: the principal stays untouched. Only the interest will be used to fuel the game at its base.
An endowment for the maidans
Naik described it in simple terms. “It’s like an endowment fund. You keep this Rs 500 crores in a fixed deposit, and from that fixed deposit, the interest gets distributed. That is for providing kits, facilities, etc.”
The money will flow to affiliated clubs, but how it is used will depend on each unit’s needs. Some might channel it into logistics – ground bookings, travel, match fees. Others will lean towards cricket equipment, nets, or basic infrastructure.
“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.
For a city that has long prided itself on unearthing talent from dusty maidans and crowded school tournaments, this is a move aimed at protecting that legacy in an era of rising costs and shrinking open spaces.
Honouring legends at Wankhede
The AGM didn’t stop at finances. It also turned to history and identity.
Three lounges at Wankhede will now carry the names of Sachin Tendulkar, Madhav Mantri and Ajinkya Rahane. A committee has been formed to decide the exact locations and layout of these dedicated spaces inside the stadium.
The choice of names spans eras: Tendulkar, the modern icon; Mantri, the old-school stalwart and key figure in Mumbai cricket’s formative years; Rahane, the contemporary Mumbai batsman who rose through the same local system the MCA is now trying to fortify.
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 gallery of greats. For visiting fans and young players, the walk into the stadium will increasingly double as a walk through Mumbai cricket’s lineage.
National Sports Governance Act stance
Away from the emotional pull of statues and naming rights, the MCA also had to address a more contentious topic: the National Sports Governance Act, 2025. The proposed law has become a talking point across Indian sport, especially after the Supreme Court’s recent queries to administrators.
On this front, Mumbai has chosen not to chart an independent course. “We have not discussed it. We will go by the BCCI decision,” Naik said, making it clear that the association will align itself with the national board’s stance rather than pre-empt it.
For now, the numbers tell their own story. Rs 500 crore ring-fenced for the grassroots. Interest earmarked for kits, facilities, and opportunity. Lounges and statues to remind everyone what this system can produce when it works.
The maidans have given Mumbai its heroes. The question now is how many more this fund can help create.
