Thiruvananthapuram awarded international cricket match after almost three decades

Cricket lovers in the state capital are in an upbeat mood after the city was allotted a Twenty20 International match when on December 20 Sri Lanka will clash with India.

The match will be played at the brand new Greenfield Stadium here which hosted the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2015 National Games.

The upcoming T20 would be the first cricket match that will be played at the stadium which is fast gearing up for the big day.

The decision to allot Thiruvananthapuram a T20 match was made on Tuesday at the meeting of the Tours and Fixtures committee of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) held at Kolkata.

From September till December, Australia, New Zealand and Sri Lanka are scheduled to visit India.

During this period, there will be three Tests, 11 ODIs and nine T-20 matches.

The last time that the state capital staged an international cricket match was when the Vivian Richards-led West Indies side played the last of the seven ODI match against India, on January 25, 1988 at the University Stadium here.

The Caribbean side trounced the Indian side led by Ravi Shastri, the present Indian coach, by winning with nine wickets.

"This is big news as this is the first time the city is staging an international cricket match after a long gap and we are happy," Kerala Cricket Association (KCA) Secretary Jayesh George told reporters here.

KCA President Vinod Kumar said the brand new stadium can accommodate 65,000 spectators .

"The wickets are almost ready and the ground levelling is presently going on. We are excited as this is going to be a challenge for us as the successful staging of the match will win us more rewards with more matches," Kumar said.

--IANS

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