Sardar Patel Stadium, the under-construction facility that will be the largest cricket ground in the world when it opens in the Indian city of Ahmedabad, is set to host its inaugural contest in March 2020, it has been announced.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has submitted a request to the International Cricket Council to sanction the exhibition match between representative teams of Asia and the Rest of the World, BCCI president Sourav Ganguly told Indian Express.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to attend the opening ceremony at the 110,000-capacity stadium, which will surpass the sport’s current largest stadium, the 100,000-seat Melbourne Cricket Ground.
The foundation stone was laid for the development nearly four years ago, in January 2017. Reports in India at the time suggested that the project would cost approximately Rs700 crore (€97m/$103m/£84.9m).
The new venue will have more than double the capacity of the previous facility on the site, Motera Stadium (pictured).
The stadium will have 73 corporate boxes, four dressing rooms, a clubhouse with at least 50 rooms, an Olympic-sized swimming pool, an indoor cricket academy and three training pitches, with the facilities spread over 63 acres.
The venue itself will have LED lighting and has been built to absorb earthquakes. It is situated 300 metres from the local metro station.
The previous stadium on the site hosted its first Test match in 1983 when India hosted the West Indies.
Image: Amidtb994
