The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) chief Sourav Ganguly and Secretary Jay Shah visited the new Sardar Patel Stadium in Ahmedabad on Tuesday.
During his two-hour visit to the stadium — set to be the world’s largest stadium with a capacity to host 1.10 lakh fans — Ganguly took a stock of things, interacting with the officials of the Gujarat Cricket Association and enquiring about the latest developments.
“He (Ganguly) had quite an elaborate discussion with the officials of the state association. He had a look at the facilities,” one of the officials told Sportstar .
After razing down the old structure at the Motera, around Rs 700 crore is being spent on building the new stadium, which is scheduled to be inaugurated in March next year.
There is a possibility of World XI playing a friendly fixture with Asia XI as an inaugural tie, but that is subjected to the approval of the International Cricket Council.
In the Board’s 88th Annual General Meeting on Sunday, Ganguly had stated that the Board plans to share the ever-increasing revenue with all the stakeholders. As a result, it decided to raise the infrastructure subsidy for state associations from Rs. 70 crore to Rs. 100 crore.
“The revenue of BCCI is increasing and will increase. The money has gone up so what we are doing is incentivising states to build better infrastructure. Gujarat has built such a huge stadium, Himachal has such fantastic facilities, Chennai’s new stands are back on track. They have got clearances…” Ganguly said.
After commencing the work in January 2017, the Gujarat Cricket Association officials are hopeful of finishing the work well in time. Spread over 63 acres, the stadium will have a clubhouse with 50 rooms and a swimming pool. “There will also be 73 corporate boxes and an indoor cricket academy along with practice grounds for the cricketers. The work is in progress,” the official, who has been involved with the project since the beginning, said.
Comments
SHARE