Gymkhana Club Ground

Nairobi Gymkhana Club is a cricket ground and team in Nairobi, Kenya. It hosted two matches during the 2003 Cricket World Cup. The ground has a capacity of 7,000 people. It is located north of the central business district, but not far from it. The ground is the main cricket venue in the country and the only one which could in any way be described as a major ground.CricketThe ground is home to a cricket team of the same name, which is one of the oldest cricket clubs in Kenya. Earlier the ground was called Suleman Verjee Indian Gymkhana having been donated by the Suleman Verjee family at a time when no recreational facilities of scale were available to Indians in Kenya.The ground is home to one of Kenya's oldest and most influential clubs, the Gymkhana has hosted colonial and other important matches since the early 1900s but it really began to develop as Kenya became a serious force in world cricket in the 1990s.It has become the main cricket ground in Kenya and hosts International games for the National team. It was at this ground, that Shahid Afridi scored the (then) fastest ODI century in 1997 from just 37 balls.Investment in the ground accelerated with ICC grants which enabled it to host the 2000 ICC Champions Trophy although since then it has suffered from a lack on investment resulting from Kenya's internal problems. The ground itself is a mixture of grass banking and wooden stands, with a modern pavilion on one side and a new media centre, constructed for the 2000 tournament, at one end.