Palika Stadium in Kanpur in 2018.

Maidans might be one of the most democratic institutions our world has invented without ever intending to. A maidan does not care much about your surname, class, or whether you can afford a membership at a club. If you have a bat, you can play. If you don’t, you can stand at the boundary, and eventually be dragged into the game.That is not how all sporting spaces work. A sporting academy or private indoor sporting arena has some kind of exclusivity and membership fee. A maidan has a different logic. The rich and the poor can occupy the same patch of grass, even if they do not live the same lives outside it.Maidans are a public common. Public commons are places that belong to everyone and to no one at the same time.However, across the country, these maidans have been shrinking. They are being converted into sports complexes with entry fees, convention centres, marriage halls, parking lots and exhibition grounds. Some changes improve the facility. Others simply make it inaccessible for the common people.

The republic of Maidan

Fifteen or twenty years ago, if you walked through Arya Nagar, one of the busy neighbourhoods in Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur, you would have witnessed hundreds of people involved in sporting activities.Around the area known as Brijendra Swaroop Park were five big public maidans, each roughly 100-150 metres wide and almost 200 metres long. Children and adults, mostly men, played cricket and other sports, flew kites or stood around watching matches. On weekends, several games could take place at the same time.There was a sporting culture around the maidans. In 2026, most of that space has disappeared or has become inaccessible for normal people to play.What remains is either behind walls, occupied by newly constructed buildings, or reduced to small patches that are difficult to use for sport.Of the five maidans, one was walled and had a grass ground but remained open to the public. It was known as Palika Stadium.The ground was large enough to host two cricket matches at the same time — one on a matting wicket and another on a proper turf wicket. A cricket academy also operated there at a monthly fee that was affordable for players.The stadium was used for more than cricket. It had a basketball court and indoor space where chess and carrom tournaments were held. Schools in the neighbourhood also used it for their annual sports events.The ground next to Palika Stadium was converted into a park more than a decade ago and named Parashuram Vatika. It has proper walkways for people who come for morning and evening walks.That change was needed, and the park has become a space used regularly, particularly by old-aged people.The Palika Stadium ground itself, which stands on Kanpur Nagar Nigam land, has been divided into two parts.One half now houses an air-conditioned multi-purpose indoor sports complex with facilities including table tennis and swimming. Membership costs range from Rs 2,500 a month to more than Rs 75,000 a year.

The other half has a cricket ground and academy with floodlights. Kanpur Municipal Corporation built the facility under a public-private partnership, and a private enterprise now manages it.However, the cricket academy’s fee has increased several times since the new facility was built. More importantly, the stadium is no longer freely accessible to the public.People can use it only if they book the stadium for matches. The rental cost ranges from Rs 12,000 to Rs 85,000 per match.

From open maidans to marriage halls and exhibitions

The other three maidans opposite Palika Stadium tell a more tragic story.In front of Palika Stadium were three grounds, separated by roads. For almost a decade, one of them was used to store sewer pipes that were meant to be installed across the city. It became unavailable for sporting activities around 2010.That ground now houses the Kanpur Municipal Corporation’s “Mangal Bhavan Baarat Shaala”, a venue that offers space for marriages and other ceremonies for a fee.

Another ground has been largely enclosed by walls. It is used for expos and exhibitions during the year. Although the public can still access it, its condition is no longer suitable for most sporting activities.The only remaining area that can still be used for some sport is a roughly 50m x 50m patch next to the walled ground.

An area that once had several grounds, each hundreds of metres across and stretching for almost 200 metres, has been reduced to a small fraction of its former sporting space. Even that remaining space is not in good condition.

Who owns the maidan?

The disappearance of open sporting spaces is not limited to Kanpur. Around 20km away, in neighbouring Unnao district, the Ram Leela ground near Hiran Nagar was also once used for sports.Today, local transport operators and tempos are regularly parked on and around the ground, making it difficult to use the space for sporting activities.In Mumbai, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation recently proposed converting Neville D’Souza Football Ground at Bandra Reclamation into an exhibition or convention centre. Hundreds of footballers, coaches, parents, students and citizens gathered last week to oppose the proposal. On Thursday, the Bombay High Court halted the BMC’s conversion plan, for now.“You tell us where the people will be playing football?” the Bombay High Court asked while stopping the BMC move.Mumbai has lost many of its maidans over the years. On Sunday, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader and MLA Aaditya Thackeray alleged that the reservations for 17 maidans and other open spaces in Mumbai had been changed and converted for commercial or residential use.

The pattern is similar in several cities.A ground that was once meant for sport becomes a parking area, a marriage venue, an exhibition centre or a site for public events. In some cases, the space technically remains open to the public but is occupied for weeks or months every year.

Making of a sporting nation: Without maidans?

Union budget 2026–27 allocated Rs 4,479.88 crore to the sports ministry. Earlier this month, the Union Cabinet approved a Rs 29,054 crore outlay for the Khelo India Scheme for the years 2026-2031 along with Rs 7,387 crore for the Assistance to National Sports Federations Scheme (ANSF). The central government has also set aside a Rs 565 crore component for states, which they will dip into to share the cost of future sports infrastructure development projects in the five-year plan.India needs more stadiums, indoor halls, swimming pools and courts. These facilities are important for training professional athletes and hosting competitions. They help produce players who can win medals and trophies.But a sporting nation cannot be built entirely through facilities that someone has to pay to enter.Maidans serve a different purpose and play a big part in creating the sporting culture. Maidans are often the place where these to-be professional athletes first kick the ball or pick up a bat. Maidans are the hub of amateur sports; people who do not wish to play sport at a professional level. They play sports just for the love of the game.Sporting culture grows in open spaces that belong to everyone, not just inside academies or big sporting arenas. The open public maidans make playing sports an accessible thing.When these maidans disappear, sport becomes something that increasingly needs money or access to a private facility.Speaking during the ‘Khelo India Dialogue’ on Thursday, called upon youngsters to choose “playgrounds over playstations.”“More important than screens are sports centres. More important than PlayStation is the playground. And this will happen only when the youth embrace this approach,” PM Modi said.As the country celebrates National Sports Day on Saturday, for youngsters to choose the playground over the PlayStation, there first needs to be a playground left to choose.