Which is the World’s Biggest Cricket Stadium?

The second most popular sport in the world, cricket has a massive following and the players are worshipped in subcontinent countries like India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Whenever the Indian team plays a game in any corner of the world, the stands are jam packed with their supporters. Same goes for the Indian Premier League matches where each of the 10 franchisees have created their own unique fan base.

England and Australia are known as the earliest rivals of the sport with the Lord’s Cricket Ground in London, UK also known as the home of cricket. The Melbourne Cricket Stadium (MCG) in Australia was in fact the biggest cricket ground from 2005 until 2021 with a capacity of 1,00,024 spectators. The newly rebuilt Motera stadium in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, renamed as the Narendra Modi Stadium is the biggest cricket stadium in the world, taking over MCG with a capacity of housing 1,34,000 viewers in addition to media boxes, VIP boxes and other facilities for the players, broadcasters, match officials etc.

The old Motera stadium was built in 1982 and was formerly known as the Sardar Patel stadium. The first ever international match on this ground was a Test match between India and West Indies on November 12-16 in 1983 which the visitors won by 138 runs. The venue hosted its first ODI in 1984 when the visiting Australia side defeated World champions India by 7 wickets.

Built very close to the banks of Sabarmati river, the 100-acre plot for the stadium was donated by the state government and it took nine months for the completion of the project. The stadium hosted various matches in the three World Cups co-hosted by India in 1987, 1996 and 2011. The stadium went under renovation in 2006 before the ICC Champions Trophy which was also hosted by India. Five matches were hosted by the Motera stadium during the course of the event.

Nine years later; in 2015, the Motera stadium was completely demolished and was reconstructed as world’s biggest cricket stadium. Around 7 billion Indian rupees were spent on the renovation project designed by Australian company ‘Populous’ with Andrew James serving as the architect. Indian conglomerate ‘Larsen and Toubro’ took five years to finish building the project.

The rebuilt facility is known as the Narendra Modi Stadium and was inaugurated on 24 February 2021 by the President of India, Ram Nath Kovind. Current India Prime Minister Narendra Modi also served as Gujarat Cricket Association president from 2009 to 2014 and was the state’s chief minister for 14 years (2001-2014).

The rebuilt stadium is part of the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Sports Complex, an under construction sports enclave. It is going to be a multi-purpose sporting facility spread across 236 acres of land and could play a major role in India hosting big events such as the Summer Olympics, Commonwealth games, Asian Games etc. in the near future.

Built with state-of-the-art and world class facilities, the Narendra Modi stadium has a 55-room club house, 11 center pitches, 76 corporate boxes with a capacity of 25 personnel each, an Olympic-size swimming pool, gymnasium, 3 practice grounds, indoor academy, badminton court, tennis court, indoor games area for squash, table tennis, etc., a projector theater amongst other facilities. International architecture firm Walter P Moore was hired to serve as the structural engineer for the stadium’s roof system which has to be light weight due to Ahmedabad being located in a level 3 seismic zone. LED light system has replaced the most commonly used floodlights in the stadium. They are designed and placed in such a way that shadows do not form at night at the ground during matches.

The surface has Bermuda grass spread across the field size of 160 meters x 140 meters. The stadium has an elevation of 84 meters. Around 13000 vehicles can find space for parking. The sloped seating type all over the ground makes it a wonderful experience for the spectators. Seating in the lower stands make up for good atmosphere in situations when the event is not a sold-out fixture.

The Narendra Modi stadium has a rich history of international cricket hosting 15 Test matches, 26 ODIs, 7 T20Is, 4 Women’s ODIs and 3 Women’s T20Is till date. Rahul Dravid has scored the most runs at this stadium in Tests with 771 runs at an average of 59.3 and a highest score of 222. Mahela Jayawardene is the highest scorer for visiting teams having hit 332 runs with a best of 275. Anil Kumble with 36 wickets leads the wicket taking charts in Tests with New Zealand’s Daniel Vettori’s tally of 13 wickets is the most for any visiting bowler in the format.

Rahul Dravid leads the chart in one-day internationals as well scoring 342 runs at a staggering average of 114. Chris Gayle (West Indies) comes 2nd with 316 runs. Kapil Dev has picked up 10 wickets at the ground in this format with Lasith Malinga taking 7 wickets as the lead visiting bowler.

The Narendra Modi Stadium hosts the Gujarat team in domestic cricket and is also the home of Gujarat Titans, one of the latest franchises in the Indian Premier League. The stadium also hosted the 2022 and 2023 IPL finals and recorded the maximum attendance of 1,01,566 in the 2022 finale.

After successfully hosting multiple teams during the 1987, 1996, 2011 World cup and five games in the 2006 Champions Trophy, the Narendra Modi Stadium is ready to host five games in the upcoming ICC Cricket World cup 2023. The curtain raiser opening fixture between defending champions England and runner up New Zealand will be followed by the blockbuster and sold out fixture of arch rivals India and Pakistan. Australia will then face England at the same ground with Afghanistan playing against South Africa. The big final match will also be staged at the very ground on November 19.