Jaipur: The foundation stone of the world’s third largest cricket stadium was laid on the Jaipur-Delhi bypass on Saturday.
Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, BCCI president Sourav Ganguly, vice-president Rajiv Shukla and secretary Jay Shah attended the ceremony virtually.
Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA) chief Vaibhav Gehlot, former president CP Joshi and other officials performed the bhoomi-poojan.
Expressing his delight, Chief Minister Gehlot said, “Today is a golden opportunity for Rajasthan cricket. Former RCA president CP Joshi saw the dream of RCA having its own stadium in Jaipur and now the professional cricket environment is being created in the state. As 7 out of 10 big stadiums in the world are in India, this stadium of Rajasthan shall be in third place in the world which is a matter of pride for the players of Rajasthan and the people of the state.”
He further added that having Deepak Chahar, Mahipal, Rahul Chahar, Khaleel Ahmed and now Ravi Bishnoi in the Indian team is a big achievement. “It is expected that now the BCCI will not allow Rajasthan to be ignored,” he added.
Meanwhile, Ganguly said that a lot of resources have been developed in the last ten years. “Today BCCI is the leading cricket board in the world. I have spent many days in Jaipur. The SMS stadium here is wonderful. But now the world’s third largest stadium is being built here in Jaipur which is a matter of happiness.”
“I am somewhat disappointed that my Kolkata stadium will now come to the last position. A lot of players are playing for the country from Rajasthan. Hope we will continue to play and bring laurels to the country.”
RCA president Vaibhav said that “we aim to complete the project of this international stadium in two and a half to three years”.
“An International Cricket Stadium is being built on 100 acres of land in Jaipur. It will be the second largest stadium in the country and the third largest in the world. In this, the seating capacity of 75000 spectators will be developed. The stadium will be constructed in 2 phases. This stadium will have 11 cricket pitches, 2 practice grounds, a cricket academy besides hostel, parking, sports club, hotel and gym facilities, which will be of international level.”
The world’s largest stadium is Motera stadium in Ahmedabad which has a capacity of around 1.10 lakh spectators. Second largest stadium is Australia’s Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) which has a capacity of one lakh spectators.
(IANS)
