The Sardar Patel Stadium in Ahmedabad, also known as the Motera Stadium, is often considered among the best cricket stadiums in the country. It’s also on the verge of becoming the world’s largest cricket stadium with a capacity to hold 1,10,000 spectators. The stadium is currently nearing completion of its big scale renovation and will most likely be ready for action anytime this year.

When complete, it will be the largest in the world, holding 110,000 fans.

Recently, the official account of International Cricket Council (ICC) took to Twitter and shared a stunning view of the in-development stadium. In the caption, ICC highlighted the capacity it can hold for a cricket match.

At the moment, the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) is the world’s largest cricket stadium with a seating capacity of over 100,000. Once renovated, the Motera Stadium will have a capacity to accommodate approximately 1,10,000 people as opposed to the MCG’s capacity of 100,000. It will also be more than double the capacity of the previous Motera ground, which could hold only 49,000 people.

Published at: https://www.republicworld.com/sports-news/cricket-news/icc-shares-first-look-at-worlds-largest-cricket-stadium-in-ahmedabad.html

The new stadium is expected to grab eyeballs the way the Statue of Unity, the world’s tallest statue at 182m, did early last year. The stadium, costing Rs700 crore and set over 63 acres, is in its final stages of completion.

The idea to rebuild the old Sardar Patel Stadium, which had a capacity of about 50,000, came up months before then chief minister Narendra Modi was to leave for Delhi in 2014, to start his new role. “When we discussed with him rebuilding the pavilion end, he asked us how old the structure was,” Parimal Nathwani, former senior vice president of the Gujarat Cricket Association, told THE WEEK. “When I said it was 25 years old, [Modi] said it would be better to come up with a new stadium.” When Modi was informed of the MCG’s seating capacity, he apparently told the GCA to build more seats.

The Sardar Patel Stadium has, over the years, seen many a record being broken. Be it Sunil Gavaskar becoming the first batsman to go past 10,000 Test runs or Kapil Dev overtaking Richard Hadlee with his 432nd scalp.

Published at: https://www.theweek.in/theweek/sports/2019/10/25/the-record-buster.html