[PICTURES] The state of cricket stadiums in Pakistan

Sindh Government To Carry Out Niaz Stadium Extension In Consultation With PCB: Commissioner

HYDERABAD, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Feb, 2020 ) :Sindh government has decided to carry out extension of historic cricket venue Niaz Stadium in consultation with Pakistan Cricket Board.

The Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah contacted with high ups of Pakistan Cricket board to seek consultation so that lost glory of the historic stadium could be restored at the earliest.

This was informed by the Commissioner Hyderabad Muhammad Abbas Baloch while talking to officers of concerned departments during his visit to Niaz Stadium here on Monday.

He said that provincial government fully committed to expand sitting capacity of the stadium with repair and renovation of stands so that the venue could host the international T-20, ODI and Test matches as well as the matches of Pakistan Super League.

The Commissioner on the occasion issued directives of stopping the construction work of the Squash Court and Tennis Court being carried out by Sindh sports Board without obtaining any approval with an amount of Rs. 85 million at the backside of Niaz Stadium. He maintained that alternate space would be provided for establishment of Squash Court and Tennis Court and the premises of the Niaz Stadium would be utilized only for extension of the historic cricket venue.

https://www.urdupoint.com/en/pakistan/sindh-government-to-carry-out-niaz-stadium-ex-846004.html

Yea no way in hell this is happening unless the Sindh Government wants to, the PCB is in no rush and we all know what Murad ali Shah thinks, he apologized last week for failing to deliver, and the PCB has clearly said its his responsibility.
 
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Apparently the ticket price for Pindi enclosures with seats it's 2500 Rs? Expect them to be mostly empty if that's the case.
 
t will be full house mark my words.

500 and 1000 ruppees tickets are all sold out

onyl availible are the 1500, 2000 and 3000 ticket.

Shoaib Akhtar enclousure is 1500 thats where i will be.


Its not going to be a full house as tickets are still availble plus people who bought the cheap tickets are selling it in black.
 
Apparently the ticket price for Pindi enclosures with seats it's 2500 Rs? Expect them to be mostly empty if that's the case.

Most of the matches are already sold out. There are only 3000Rs tickets available for a couple of matches. Demand is extremely high in twin cities.
 
Apparently the ticket price for Pindi enclosures with seats it's 2500 Rs? Expect them to be mostly empty if that's the case.

There were only two enclosures remaining without seats. I think they will get ready before first match. However outfield is still in extremely poor condition. They completely messed it up trying to make patterns.
 
Multan and pindi ticket sales have been brilliant. PSL will make great profit this year and can invest in stadiums and high performance centres.
 
Sindh Government To Carry Out Niaz Stadium Extension In Consultation With PCB: Commissioner

HYDERABAD, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Feb, 2020 ) :Sindh government has decided to carry out extension of historic cricket venue Niaz Stadium in consultation with Pakistan Cricket Board.

The Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah contacted with high ups of Pakistan Cricket board to seek consultation so that lost glory of the historic stadium could be restored at the earliest.

This was informed by the Commissioner Hyderabad Muhammad Abbas Baloch while talking to officers of concerned departments during his visit to Niaz Stadium here on Monday.

He said that provincial government fully committed to expand sitting capacity of the stadium with repair and renovation of stands so that the venue could host the international T-20, ODI and Test matches as well as the matches of Pakistan Super League.

The Commissioner on the occasion issued directives of stopping the construction work of the Squash Court and Tennis Court being carried out by Sindh sports Board without obtaining any approval with an amount of Rs. 85 million at the backside of Niaz Stadium. He maintained that alternate space would be provided for establishment of Squash Court and Tennis Court and the premises of the Niaz Stadium would be utilized only for extension of the historic cricket venue.

https://www.urdupoint.com/en/pakistan/sindh-government-to-carry-out-niaz-stadium-ex-846004.html

What a mess building squash and tennis courts. I really wish Niaz Stadium can be upgraded but looks like will be a few years before it's ready if we lucky
 
The Multan Stadium is a beautiful stadium. But like Pindi it needs to be full equipped with seats
 
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It's shame the matches in Pindi will have finished by the time my family go to PK, my little one would have loved it.
 
Temporary seats at the Pindi stadium are better than the horrible concrete blocks they've had, but it's only a temporary measure. Hopefully the PCB will look at this long-term and get permanent seating there.
 
As cricket returns slowly, stadiums will get better. Good to see cricket in Pakistan.
 
Heard that Pindi will also get renovations to make it a double stand stadium? Don't know if its true but it would be great, the capital(almost) needs a big stadium
 
So next season,

LQ - Fully functional, full seater stadium with modern facilities
MS - Fully functional, mostly seats stadium with good facilities
KK - Fully functional, full seater stadium with modern facilities
IU - Fully functional, (HOPEFULLY) full seater stadium with ok facilities
PZ - We'll see. Hopefully renovated stadium is ready to open. otherwise share home stadium with IU for another season
QG- Share stadium with KK/MS, noone is going to Quetta to play matches in the next 5 years. Best of luck to them though. Always a strong team

Honestly this isn't a bad start for teams considering these stadiums barely saw cricket for over 10 years. Hopefully as more tours happen and PSL seasons and the PCB starts to make money they put it into rehabilitating stadiums. We can't look at this pessimistically right now. We're just now getting regular cricket back in the country. Indian stadiums looked pretty much the same 10-15 years ago and IPL money along with investment into facilities over the last decade has made their stadiums modern. We'll get there, we lost a decade thanks to terrorism. The lost time won't be made up in a year or two.
 
So next season,

LQ - Fully functional, full seater stadium with modern facilities
MS - Fully functional, mostly seats stadium with good facilities
KK - Fully functional, full seater stadium with modern facilities
IU - Fully functional, (HOPEFULLY) full seater stadium with ok facilities
PZ - We'll see. Hopefully renovated stadium is ready to open. otherwise share home stadium with IU for another season
QG- Share stadium with KK/MS, noone is going to Quetta to play matches in the next 5 years. Best of luck to them though. Always a strong team

Honestly this isn't a bad start for teams considering these stadiums barely saw cricket for over 10 years. Hopefully as more tours happen and PSL seasons and the PCB starts to make money they put it into rehabilitating stadiums. We can't look at this pessimistically right now. We're just now getting regular cricket back in the country. Indian stadiums looked pretty much the same 10-15 years ago and IPL money along with investment into facilities over the last decade has made their stadiums modern. We'll get there, we lost a decade thanks to terrorism. The lost time won't be made up in a year or two.

Rafi cricket stadium bahria town Karachi will be ready also with 50 000 capacity too
 
Most of the matches are already sold out. There are only 3000Rs tickets available for a couple of matches. Demand is extremely high in twin cities.

Hopefully that's the case. Rs 2500 is pretty expensive so I thought they'd be mostly empty.
 
So next season,

LQ - Fully functional, full seater stadium with modern facilities
MS - Fully functional, mostly seats stadium with good facilities
KK - Fully functional, full seater stadium with modern facilities
IU - Fully functional, (HOPEFULLY) full seater stadium with ok facilities
PZ - We'll see. Hopefully renovated stadium is ready to open. otherwise share home stadium with IU for another season
QG- Share stadium with KK/MS, noone is going to Quetta to play matches in the next 5 years. Best of luck to them though. Always a strong team

Honestly this isn't a bad start for teams considering these stadiums barely saw cricket for over 10 years. Hopefully as more tours happen and PSL seasons and the PCB starts to make money they put it into rehabilitating stadiums. We can't look at this pessimistically right now. We're just now getting regular cricket back in the country. Indian stadiums looked pretty much the same 10-15 years ago and IPL money along with investment into facilities over the last decade has made their stadiums modern. We'll get there, we lost a decade thanks to terrorism. The lost time won't be made up in a year or two.

Home grounds for Quetta can be Hyderabad and Faisalabad. They are cities who don't have teams, but also haven't gotten any games in 11-12 years, so stadiums should still be packed.
 
Multan Stadium looks like it could host the Olympics. Amazing and probably the best Pakistani stadium.
 
Temporary seats at the Pindi stadium are better than the horrible concrete blocks they've had, but it's only a temporary measure. Hopefully the PCB will look at this long-term and get permanent seating there.

Apparently permanent seats were part of phase 1, but will now be done post psl.
 
The grass in pindi stadium still looks awful. ��*♂️ ��*♂️ ��*♂️

Probably cause it was winter. Frost can burn the grass and turn in brown. Watering doesn't do anything when there is frost. It will recover.
 
Home grounds for Quetta can be Hyderabad and Faisalabad. They are cities who don't have teams, but also haven't gotten any games in 11-12 years, so stadiums should still be packed.

Hyderabad is not in any shape to host club games much less this FC or PSL matches. Faisalabad could be their home ground.
 
500 and 1000 ruppees tickets are all sold out

onyl availible are the 1500, 2000 and 3000 ticket.

Shoaib Akhtar enclousure is 1500 thats where i will be.


Its not going to be a full house as tickets are still availble plus people who bought the cheap tickets are selling it in black.
Oh Should have been sold out but yes 3000k is much more should be less than that. I thought excitement is much more, I will be there ok saturday as well.
 
Yea no way in hell this is happening unless the Sindh Government wants to, the PCB is in no rush and we all know what Murad ali Shah thinks, he apologized last week for failing to deliver, and the PCB has clearly said its his responsibility.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Murad halts construction of sports courts at Niaz Stadium Hyderabad <a href="https://t.co/7VHRK405ML">pic.twitter.com/7VHRK405ML</a></p>— CMHouseSindh (@SindhCMHouse) <a href="https://twitter.com/SindhCMHouse/status/1231885908514832386?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 24, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The absolute minimum effort exerted as expected by our hardworking Sindh CM.
 
Yea no way in hell this is happening unless the Sindh Government wants to, the PCB is in no rush and we all know what Murad ali Shah thinks, he apologized last week for failing to deliver, and the PCB has clearly said its his responsibility.

PCB should be interested.

Punjab in Nov/Dec/Jan isn't good enough for test match. Hyderabad along with Karachi are ideal test centers in such weather condition
 
Advantage of hosting at that stadium includes larger hosting capacity, a new state of the art stadium. Disadvantages include the distance from the city (Bahria town is quite far from Karachi), and possible fees PCB might end up having to pay.

If Bahria town charges very little fee, PCB might go for it. I can't see PCB moving to that stadium fully as they will lose leverage over Bahria town, but best case they might start playing some of their games there. At best they will only play LOI there, can't see them hosting tests there.

I think it suits Bahria town to offer very discounted rates to PCB, as that's the highest profile international event it could host in the near future. It would be great publicility for Bahria town.

I also think that it being away from Karachi is a good thing, as security wise it will be logistically easier and cheaper for PCB and less stressful for the inhabitants of the city. PCB though need to keep the prices low to encourage an attendance of 50k and to get people to travel that far.

Also, if the Niaz stadium gets ready as well, they split KK's five matches between Rafi and Niaz stadiums.

Quetta can split their games between NSK and Faislabad. They can play KK and PZ at NSK and then play the Punjab teams I.e. LQ, MS and ISLU at Faislabad. That way you can spread the venues and pack them out. However, ticket prices have to be affordable.
 
It’s not just about the stadium. You need to have good hotels as well in these cities, Dawson posted a view from his hotel room in Multan and it looked terrible
 
Oh Should have been sold out but yes 3000k is much more should be less than that. I thought excitement is much more, I will be there ok saturday as well.

There's rain on Saturday.
 
So next season,

LQ - Fully functional, full seater stadium with modern facilities
MS - Fully functional, mostly seats stadium with good facilities
KK - Fully functional, full seater stadium with modern facilities
IU - Fully functional, (HOPEFULLY) full seater stadium with ok facilities
PZ - We'll see. Hopefully renovated stadium is ready to open. otherwise share home stadium with IU for another season
QG- Share stadium with KK/MS, noone is going to Quetta to play matches in the next 5 years. Best of luck to them though. Always a strong team

Honestly this isn't a bad start for teams considering these stadiums barely saw cricket for over 10 years. Hopefully as more tours happen and PSL seasons and the PCB starts to make money they put it into rehabilitating stadiums. We can't look at this pessimistically right now. We're just now getting regular cricket back in the country. Indian stadiums looked pretty much the same 10-15 years ago and IPL money along with investment into facilities over the last decade has made their stadiums modern. We'll get there, we lost a decade thanks to terrorism. The lost time won't be made up in a year or two.

I think a good solution for QG is using Niaz Stadium, Hyderabad as their home stadium. PCB has hinted at renovating the stadium so why not make it Quetta's adopted home?
 
It’s not just about the stadium. You need to have good hotels as well in these cities, Dawson posted a view from his hotel room in Multan and it looked terrible

There is a PC under construction in Multan slated to complete this year so its not like nothing is being done. Peshawar already has a PC while Hyderabad needs some serious work in many, many areas.
 
Lol, no way this stadium will be ready. Disgraceful condition

Arbab Niaz Stadium Peshawar will be ready by 2021 season. Its being built along the lines of Dubai ring of fire with double storey. It will have 5 star accomodation to go with. Rafi Stadium will be a double storey too with the capacity of 50000.
 
Temporary seats at the Pindi stadium are better than the horrible concrete blocks they've had, but it's only a temporary measure. Hopefully the PCB will look at this long-term and get permanent seating there.


The pindi stadium along with Multan stadium will will have premament seats in phase 2. Next edition of PSL will have permanent seats.
 
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Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad/Rawalpindi are all ready to go. All have PC Hotels, up to date stadiums and airports.

Hyderabad: Pearl Continental Hotel will be constructed, MOU signed. Hopefully this means cricket comes back to the Niaz stadium in 4-5 years if renovated, not before 2024. Airport closed to traffic since 2013.

Multan: PC hotel is almost complete, stadium undergoing light renovation that should be done by 2020. Airport operational.

Mirpur City: PC hotel is almost complete, Unfortunately there is no airport in Mirpur, and recent earthquake damaged the stadium and forced the 2XI Quaid-E-Azam Trophy matches to be moved.

Muzaffarad: Has a PC hotel and good stadium, the airport should reopen within a few months.

Peshawar: Arbab Niaz stadium renovation should be complete by 2021, and its close to a PC hotel. Airport operational.

Faisalabad: 4 Star Serena Hotel close by, Iqbal stadium would need renovation. Airport operational.

Quetta: 4 Star Serena Hotel, Bugti stadium would need an update. Airport operational.

Sialkot: No decent hotels, Jinnah Stadium needs renovation. Airport operational.

*All PC Hotels are 5 star hotels.

'Inshallah next year we will get 5 matches'
Multan Sultans owner Ali Tareen in an interview, commenting on number of psl games held in Multan, this year they got 3.
 
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A bit of a stretch to call PC a “5 star” hotel, but it is still more than decent enough to accommodate the foreign players.

Not sure if the lack of cricket in Pakistan is a valid excuse for the embarrassing state of the stadiums. Like BCCI, PCB should have pumped some money in revamping the infrastructure in the 90’s and 2000’s.

We are not that rich but we are not destitute either. Unfortunately, we are extremely incompetent.
 
A bit of a stretch to call PC a “5 star” hotel, but it is still more than decent enough to accommodate the foreign players.

Not sure if the lack of cricket in Pakistan is a valid excuse for the embarrassing state of the stadiums. Like BCCI, PCB should have pumped some money in revamping the infrastructure in the 90’s and 2000’s.

We are not that rich but we are not destitute either. Unfortunately, we are extremely incompetent.

Corruption and incompetence. Politicans in 2000s ate all the money. Sindh is still doing it.
 
Serena's are decent Hotels by any international standard, I have stayed one in Islamabad for 3 night on one of my previous trip to Pakistan.
 
Yup, they built a stadium in Bhutto's hometown when Zaka Ashraf was chairman and the PPP was in power, and its wasting away these days, built in a village.

They will bill full value for the project, deliver cheap piece of sh*t and pocket the rest. This has been happening for decades. Thats why most of Pakistan looks like a poor African country.
 
Multan cricket stadium is actually quite beautiful and has modern infrastructure, it needs better seating arrangement.

The environment is electric and amazing.

Feeling happy and proud.

Till last year, many on this forum would've mocked anyone who said that Multan will be venue for PSL.

Credit where its due, I'm not a fan of Ehsan Mani but kudos to him for standing firm and making this possible. Credit to Imran Khan govt. as well as General Raheel Sharif and the Pak Army.
 
Serena's are decent Hotels by any international standard, I have stayed one in Islamabad for 3 night on one of my previous trip to Pakistan.

Serena, Marriott and Sheraton are excellent. PC used to be very good but it is a fledging brand now, especially in cities like Peshawar.
 
Serena, Marriott and Sheraton are excellent. PC used to be very good but it is a fledging brand now, especially in cities like Peshawar.

Do you think Peshawar as a city is ready to host PSL?
 
I think a good solution for QG is using Niaz Stadium, Hyderabad as their home stadium. PCB has hinted at renovating the stadium so why not make it Quetta's adopted home?

Niaz Stadium is not owned by the PCB so they have no control over the running of it. Up to Sindh gov't to get it up to standard.
 
Niaz Stadium is not owned by the PCB so they have no control over the running of it. Up to Sindh gov't to get it up to standard.

Niaz Stadium is under PCB ownership, it was acquired under Nasim Ashraf in 2007.

Pindi Stadium is under Cricket Association ownership.
 
Niaz Stadium is under PCB ownership, it was acquired under Nasim Ashraf in 2007.

Pindi Stadium is under Cricket Association ownership.

Niaz stadium caretaking was handed of the Sindh Govt. Nothing has been done since obviously.
 
Peshawar has still got a security issue and forget about Quetta. I think Faisalabad and Hyderabad stadium could be used for PZ and QG. Abbottabad is not a bad option either but the teams will have to commute from Islamabad and it might take long
 
Patience, let them finish building the stadium first:faheem

They are having a right go at it to finish the stadium in time for next season, construction is progressing at a swift pace. Will also be the biggest in Pakistan. We do not have alot (any?) 2 tier stadiums.
 
Niaz Stadium is under PCB ownership, it was acquired under Nasim Ashraf in 2007.

the PCB secured the ground’s administrative control in July 2007 under a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the local municipal committee, which is its custodian. The ground remained with it for 11 years until the municipal committee revoked the MoU arbitrarily on April 2, 2018 and seized control of it.

The MoU revocation was understandable only to some extent. The local municipal leadership had the grievance that, while the ground remained with the PCB for 11 long years, the board didn’t honour its commitments made in the MoU, leading to its revocation. The PCB, meanwhile, had its own axe to grind as it explained that the board is not in a position to make heavy investment at any centre due to its own weak financial position.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1531944
 
A bit of a stretch to call PC a “5 star” hotel, but it is still more than decent enough to accommodate the foreign players.

Not sure if the lack of cricket in Pakistan is a valid excuse for the embarrassing state of the stadiums. Like BCCI, PCB should have pumped some money in revamping the infrastructure in the 90’s and 2000’s.

We are not that rich but we are not destitute either. Unfortunately, we are extremely incompetent.

The irony in this post is laughable because

1. Last twenty years the parties ruling us were (drum roll) PPP (the bhutto cult) PMLN (the sharif cult)
2. PCB had the most corrupt but competent (so-called) chairman in (again drum roll) Sir Sethi as the most recent head

Adorable post Mamoon my g
 
They are having a right go at it to finish the stadium in time for next season, construction is progressing at a swift pace. Will also be the biggest in Pakistan. We do not have alot (any?) 2 tier stadiums.

It will be the first.
 
The thing that worries me about Arbab Niaz Stadium is the developer’s persistence in putting pillars right in front/middle of the stands. Not only does that block the view of the fans and reduce the stadiums capacity, they are also very ugly and archaic.
 
The thing that worries me about Arbab Niaz Stadium is the developer’s persistence in putting pillars right in front/middle of the stands. Not only does that block the view of the fans and reduce the stadiums capacity, they are also very ugly and archaic.

Ovbiously the pillars are there for a reason, they're not there just because the contractor wants them to be. You need support for the second tier.
 
Such as? I'm not a structural engineer so maybe I'm wrong.

These days, Pillars are used at the back of a stand just for supporting the upper deck and the roof. Google the picture of any of the modern stadiums and you won’t see pillars blocking the view. The picture I’ve shared clearly indicates that pillars are being built right in front of the first stand. Unless they are planing to demolish the existing stands and the ground floor I don’t think these pillars can be removed from blocking fans view.
 
These days, Pillars are used at the back of a stand just for supporting the upper deck and the roof. Google the picture of any of the modern stadiums and you won’t see pillars blocking the view. The picture I’ve shared clearly indicates that pillars are being built right in front of the first stand. Unless they are planing to demolish the existing stands and the ground floor I don’t think these pillars can be removed from blocking fans view.

There are pillars at the back as well. I agree that pillars are annoying, however I think that it is the only option they have left, since they are renovating an already existing stadium, which wasn't originally planned to be a double stand. For example, Rafi Stadium in Karachi will not have pillars blocking the view because it is pre planned to be a double stand stadium.
 
There are pillars at the back as well. I agree that pillars are annoying, however I think that it is the only option they have left, since they are renovating an already existing stadium, which wasn't originally planned to be a double stand. For example, Rafi Stadium in Karachi will not have pillars blocking the view because it is pre planned to be a double stand stadium.

I don’t think the existing features of the stadium are worth keeping. I’d rather destroy the whole stadium and build it from the scratch.
 
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