Greater Noida cricket stadium gets nod from ICC to host international matches

Team consisting of top ICC officials and BCCI officials, visited the stadium on December 13. They inspected the ground and were satisfied with the facilities.

New Delhi: The Shaheed Vijay Singh Pathik (SVSP) cricket stadium in Greater Noida gets approval from the International Cricket Council (ICC) to host international matches bewtween its full members teams.

The Board of Control for Cricket (BCCI) has confirmed on Friday that they finally got the approval from the intenational body.

A team consisting of former New Zealand and currently ICC match refree Jeff Crowe, along with MV Sridhar, general manager for cricket operations for BCCI, and Niranjan Singh Virk, ICC's anti-corruption manager, visited the stadium on December 13. They inspected the ground and were satisfied with the facilities.

BCCI president Anurag Thakur expressed his happiness over this decision and said, “I’m pleased to announce that the SVSP Cricket Stadium, Greater Noida is now fully compliant to host international matches with full members. BCCI had organised Duleep PaytmTrophy for the first time in Day/Night format using the pink ball from August 23 to September 14, 2016 that tested the venue’s infrastructure and facility.”

“The Afghanistan national team had also used the venue for their home games earlier this year. I am confident that this approval will inspire the authorities to take this stadium to next level,” he further added.

It has to remembered that the stadium was earlier approved by ICC to stage matches between associate members in December 2015, and it underwent an upgrade to fulfill the minimum requirements to host the top teams.

(With PTI inputs)