Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium

Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium, generally known as Ekana Cricket Stadium, is an international cricket stadium in Lucknow, India. This arena has a seating capacity of 50,000, thus it is the fifth largest international cricket stadium of India. The stadium was previously named as “Ekana Cricket Stadium” carries significant meaning and symbolism “Ekana” is a Sanskrit word that translates to “one” or “unity”. And was later it was renamed on the name of former Prime minister of India, Bharat Ratna Shree Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

The stadium has the longest straight boundaries in comparison to all the stadiums in India. This arena is the home ground of Uttar Pradesh cricket team and also the home venue of IPL franchise Lucknow Super Giants.

History

The project for constructing the world class stadium in Lucknow was commissioned in 2014, and the stadium was built under public-private partnership between Ekana Sportz City and Lucknow Development Authority during the tenure of the 2012-2017 state government under the watch of then Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav. Ekana Sportz City is a Joint venture between Nagarjuna Construction Company, GC Construction & Development Industries Pvt Ltd. As per the agreement of the partnership, the government provided Ekana Sportz City with 35 year lease of 71 acres to build the cricket stadium, with the lease running through 2052. In addition, the government also provided 66 additional acres of land for real estate projects on a 99 year lease. The cricket stadium has been built with a budget of 360 crores (3.6 billion rupees).

Before its international debut, it also hosted the final of the 2017–18 Duleep Trophy. The stadium was allocated the 3rd ODI between India and New Zealand to be held on 27 Oct 2017. However, the venue was shifted to Kanpur after the stadium was declared incomplete. On 6 November 2018, the stadium hosted its first international match, a Twenty20 International (T20I) between India and the West Indies, becoming the 52nd stadium in India to host an international cricket match. International cricket match returned to Lucknow after 24 years, after the India and Sri Lanka test match of 1994. In that match Rohit Sharma became the first cricketer to score four centuries in T20Is. India won that match by 71 runs. The last time Lucknow hosted an international match was in January 1994, when India played a test match against Sri Lanka at the K.D. Singh Babu Stadium.

In May 2019, Afghanistan Cricket Board requested the BCCI to use this venue for their international matches. In August 2019, BCCI awarded the venue to Afghanistan national cricket team as their third home venue in India, being previously played in Dehradun and Greater Noida.

It hosted all the matches during Afghanistan vs West Indies series in 2019. On 6 November 2019, the venue hosted its first ODI match. On 27 November 2019, the venue hosted its first Test match.