Baroda Cricket Association seeks allotment of international matches at new Kotambi stadium

VADODARA: If it gets Board of Control for Cricket in India's (BCCI) nod, Barodians will enjoy international cricket live at its newly built international cricket stadium in Kotambi.
The city, which is still under the 13-year-old drought of international cricket matches, may soon reverse fortunes if the Baroda Cricket Association's (BCA) request to the cricketing body gets a favourable response.
"The stadium will be ready to host matches in the next couple of months. I have written to the BCCI and also had a word with the management recently about allowing Vadodara to host international cricket matches. We are hopeful of getting matches soon," BCA president Pranav Amin told TOI.
With Gujarat having its own IPL team, efforts are also on to get a few IPL games to the city. In 2010, the city last hosted a one-day international match between India and New Zealand. Over a decade ago, the BCCI came up with a rule wherein international matches were to be given to only those associations that have their own cricket .stadium.
BCA didn't have its own stadium and hosted the ODI matches at Reliance Stadium. Therefore, the BCCI stopped allotting international games to the city. The spacious and grand stadium at Kotambi with nearly 35,000 seating capacity has been designed in a way that spectators will have a clear view of the ground from every corner.
The pavilions will house about 8,000 viewers. Apart from having separate umpires' room, scorers' room and dressing room for the playing teams, the stadium will also have sporting and training facilities for the players. Two more grounds of international standards have also been prepared next to the main ground.
"Work is in full swing and all the pavilions will be ready by March. After the civil work is over, the interiors will be done," said Sheetal Mehta, BCA vice-president. BCA's member of stadium committee Ajit Patel said some matches are already being played at the stadium and BCA has already invited the BCCI team to inspect the ground.
The association had been promising a stadium to the citizens for the last two decades but failed land deals and allegations of mismanagement in the BCA led to the inordinate delays.