New stadiums in pipeline despite BCCI mess

These are uncertain times for the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Their entire set of office-bearers may have to vacate their chairs, and to make matters worse, they do not even have access to their share of funds and grants from the BCCI unless they implement the Lodha reforms.

Despite these issues, a couple of state associations are not shying away from their `grand plans'. In a highly ambitious project, the Gujarat Cricket Association (GCA) is aiming to build the biggest stadium in the world in terms of seating capacity at Ahmedabad. The Sardar Patel Stadium in Motera, when it is ready after a complete makeover, will be able to accommodate as many as 100,024 spectators. Earlier this month, the GCA announced that it was handing over the contract of rebuilding the stadium from scratch to Larsen & Turbo (L & T). The arena is supposed to be a dream project of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a former Chief Minister of Gujarat, and GCA president Amit Shah, who's also the BJP president.

"The new stadium will be complete after a couple of years. The cost of building it will be around 800 crores," a GCA official told TOI on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association (MPCA) is planning to build a second cricket stadium in the state, after the Holkar Stadium in Indore, where it can host international games.This stadium, which will take around five-six years to build, will come up at Gwalior, which used to host international fixtures at the Captain Roop Singh Stadium earlier.

It will boast of a capacity of around 55,000, and should not cost more than Rs120 crore to build. "We've already allocated Rs35 crores from our funds for this project," said an MPCA official, while revealing that the association has around Rs120 crores in its coffers at present.

The Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) too has begun work on building a massive cricket stadium near Chandigarh, which will see international matches shift there from Mohali.