The Sharjah Cricket Stadium in the United Arab Emirates is to undergo significant redevelopment work as it seeks to keep pace with the two other major cricket venues in the country.
The 15,000-capacity stadium holds the world record for hosting the most number of one-day matches, with the figure currently standing at 225. However, its status as the premier cricket ground in the UAE has been challenged in recent years, with bigger venues having opened in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
The Sharjah Cricket Stadium hosted 198 one-day internationals between 1984 and 2003 and often served as a home ground for Pakistan. A match-fixing scandal in the late 1990s damaged the venue’s reputation, before stadia opened in Abu Dhabi in 2004 and Dubai in 2009.
The emergence of the two new venues has prompted local authorities to revamp Sharjah Cricket Stadium in a bid to return it to its former glory.
“We have decided that the facilities in the stadium have to be state-of-the-art,” Waleed Bukhatir, vice-chairman of the Sharjah Cricket Council and executive committee member of the Emirates Cricket Board, said, according to the Gulf News newspaper.
“You know it is in the Guinness Book of Records as well so we cannot stay behind. It means we need more seating capacity, better facilities for players and fans.”
Bukhatir added: “We need to have an indoor training facility, medical facility and hospitality enclosures. We are yet to decide on what would be the exact seating capacity but there will definitely be a substantial increase in the seating.”
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