With seating capacity of 110,000 Motera cricket stadium in Ahmedabad surpassed the Melbourne Cricket ground and became the biggest cricket stadium of the world. Indian President Ram Nath Kovind and Home Minister Amit Shah inaugurated the stadium followed by the third test match between India and England.
Ongoing day-night pink ball Test is the first international match hosted at Motera since November 2015 after the demolition for reconstruction.The newly renovated Motera Stadium in Ahmedabad hosted Syed Mushtaq Ali knockout matches January 2021. This massive complex is spread across 63 acres , has multiple dressing rooms, indoor practice pitches, outdoor pitches and even a dormitory. There are individual spaces for coaches, physiotherapists ,trainers and coaching assistants .
The old stadium, with 54,000 seating capacity, was known as the Sardar Patel Cricket Stadium, where many historically important matches were played. It hosted 12 Tests, 23 One Day Internationals, and one T20 between 1982 and 2016.
“The stadium is beautiful, the seats are beautiful. The ground is probably one of the best I have ever been to. Half of 1,10,000 would be present at the stadium, this is the most we get at most places anyway. Ready to see what unfolds when the match starts,” said England fast bowler Jofra Archer talking to ECB’s media team on Monday.
Though Motera stadium is renowned as the world’s biggest cricket stadium. However, it has always held a special pride of place in Indian cricket. On March 7, 1987 Sunil Gavaskar becomes the first batsman to score 10,000 Test runs in Motera old stadium in the fourth Test of the five-match series between India and Pakistan . It was at the Motera Stadium on February 8, 1994, when Kapil Dev broke Sir Richard Hadlee’s then-world record of most test wickets and finally Indian cricketer very very special Laxman(VVS Laxman) made test debut in the same stadium in 1996 against South Africa.