Lucknow: A team of BCCI official along with the CEO of Gujarat Lions team CEO today conducted a inspection of the under construction International Ekana stadium at Gomtinagar in Lucknow for hosting IPL matches in the city.
The official team members of BCCI led by their general manager cricket operations MV Sridhar, along with tournament operations director Catherine Simpson of IMG, Gujarat Lions’ CEO Arvinder Singh and Gujarat Lions’ manager Ali Hamid Zaidi stayed at the stadium for around four hours and discussed the feasibility of hosting two matches of the tournament here.
Interestingly, they were assisted by Uday Sinha, managing director of Ekana Sportz City.
As per the information, the Gujarat Lions, who had declared Kanpur as their second home last year had hosted two IPL matches at Green Park stadium there.
But, this year they want the matches to be shifted to Lucknow as the capacity of the stadium here is more compared to that of Green Park.
IPL officials visited Lucknow’s International stadium for hosting matches
In this year’s IPL season 10th edition, Gujarat Lions will be playing matches on May 10th and May 13th against Delhi Daredevils and Sunrisers Hyderabad respectively in Uttar Pradesh state.
According to sources, no final decision could be taken after the inspection of under construction stadium about shifting of the matches. “Though the ground and the lights at the stadium are very good, Sridhar and Simpson want a few more modifications before a final decision can be taken.”
The official members of the team, has given about ten days to the management of the stadium to complete the required modifications at the parking lot, public safety and toilets before a final call can be made.”
It is expected that the team will again visit the city again in the first week of April, and after their visit the final call will be taken only about whether the matches will be played in Lucknow or Kanpur.
