Many memorable matches, including the final of the 2011 World Cup which India won, have been played here and so have many events - such as the Indian team's felicitation post the 2007 World T20 victory - been conducted in this historic arena.
However, with all due respect to the frenzy of India's cricket-crazy crowds of the past, they are no match to the madness that has prevailed here in the last 48 hours.
The 'Sachin Tendulkar Show' has arrived and those who haven't got enough of him in the last 25 years or so are craving for another chance. Except that this one is going to be the last ever.
A kilometer-long line of young and the old waited outside the stadium premises, under a tiring sun, on Tuesday afternoon, with printouts of their online tickets in hand to obtain an official copy to attend India's second Test against the West Indies here, beginning Thursday.
Some distance away, another section of crowd kept swelling by the minute wanting to know if KyaZoonga - the website that sold close to 5000 tickets to the match in less than an hour - would come out with more.
Metal-detectors came to the Wankhede by truckloads, fabricators worked on the iron fences to keep a massive crowd of onlookers at bay, police personnel conducted mock drills to rehearse security measures, sniffer dogs roamed the stadium premises, sponsors and advertisers rushed to get their banners in place and crews of painters, carpenters and renovators worked at giving last-minute touches to the premises.
The scene looked straight out of a movie set where everything was being prepared in a race against time before its biggest star would arrive there any moment.
There's quite a build-up happening as far as the guest list is concerned. Rajni Tendulkar, his mother who's never seen him bat in an international match, is scheduled to be here on one of the days and her entry - on a wheelchair - has been personally facilitated by Tendulkar himself.
His brothers Ajit and Nitin, sister Savita, wife Anjali, the kids Arjun and Sara; Nita and Mukesh Ambani among other corporate bigs; cinema star and Tendulkar's good friend Aamir Khan along with personalities from the film industry; international cricketers such as Shane Warne and Brian Lara, his friends from Mumbai, across the country and abroad and many more are going to be among those he's personally invited.
In all, the MCA has given Tendulkar 500 VIP tickets in the ground, two corporate boxes accommodating 15 seats each and 20 passes to the MCA president's box where his guests will be seated.
There are no tickets available anymore, according to the MCA. Only around 5000 tickets of the 33,000-capacity stadium have gone on sale while the rest have been distributed among Tendulkar, his family and friends, the MCA, the BCCI, city clubs and former and present cricketers.
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