Finally, some good news for Lucknowites after 24 years. The city of Nawab’s will host an international cricket match on November 6 this year between India and West Indies.
This will end the drought period of holding international matches in Lucknow. The last international cricket match Lucknow hosted was 24 years ago.
The Ekana international stadium in Lucknow will host the second T-20 match between India and West Indies. The announcement has been made by BCCI.
In this connection a team led by former pacer Javagal Srinath had inspected the stadium on August 29 and had found it fit to hold the match.
According to Uday Sinha, managing director, Ekana Sports City, they will leave no stone unturned to make the match a grand event.
So far in Lucknow, three international matches have been held which included the test match — India Vs Pakiastan in 1952, on Gomti ground which India lost, Pakistan Vs Sri Lanka one day in 1989, at K.D Singh Babu stadium which Pakistan had won and the third one was a test match between India and Sri Lanka at K D Singh Babu stadium in 1994, which India had won.
The stadium which will host the match is equipped with great facilities and spread over an area of 71 acres. It has two screens of 1800 sq feet each, 40 VIP boxes, world-class dressing room, media centre and flood lights and a facility of 2500 vehicles parking.
So far the stadium has hosted six domestic matches which include five Duleep Trophy matches.
Lucknow was facing tough competition from Kanpur’s Green Park stadium in terms of holding an international cricket match.