The Sardar Patel Cricket Stadium in Ahmedabad would be the biggest cricket stadium in the world in terms of seating capacity, said the Gujarat Cricket Stadium in a release on Friday. The stadium which will be built in place of the demolished Motera stadium, will have 1,00,000 seats – putting it alongside the MCG as the biggest cricket stadiums in the world.
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The demolition of the Motera stadium, which had a capacity of 54,000, has begun and will be completed in four months. The GCA said that the existing seats were not enough to accommodate the crowds in peak cricket seasons, and that the building of the new stadium will take two years.
"In line with the dream of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and GCA President Amit Shah, Sardar Patel cricket stadium will be converted into Melbourne-like cricket stadium, which will be the biggest cricket stadium in the world," said a joint statement by GCA vice president Parimal Nathwani and joint secretary Jay Shah.
New stadium will be world’s best: GCA
The new stadium, to be built in place of one of India's most historic cricket venues, aims to become the best cricket stadium in the world.
“We have been making attempts to make Motera world's best and state-of-the art stadium. For which the design and the project is ready. It is very difficult to become a good cricketer if facilities are not up to the mark. There will neither be quality nor quantity in such circumstances. With the better ground facilities, we will get good cricketers from Gujarat," said Amit Shah, who is GCA President and BCCI vice-president.
The Motera stadium was built in 1983, and has seen several memorable moments – some of them being Sunil Gavaskar creating history by becoming the first batsman to breach the 10000-run mark in Tests, Kapil Dev breaking Sir Richard Hadlee's record of 431 Test wickets, Sachin Tendulkar’s first double century and the 2011 World Cup quarter-final victory over Australia.
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