BCA requests Guj govt for land for indoor cricket stadium

Baroda Cricket Association president Pranav Amin on Friday said the cricket body has requested the Gujarat government to allocate land for construction of an indoor stadium.

"It is necessary to construct this stadium as it is time to prepare for the future. We thought of it after poor performance of the Ranji team," Amin told reporters here.

"This is to ensure interruptions due to the weather are minimised and the game can be played throughout the year. Given how the climate is becoming unpredictable these days with unseasonal rains and extremely high temperatures during the summer, it isn't a bad idea to invest in an indoor cricket stadium in Vadodara," he said.

"This indoor stadium project will be in addition to the stadium project undertaken at Kotambi on the outskirts of the city, where infrastructure is being created for hosting national level matches for which 11 pitches and nine practice pitches are being prepared," Amin added.

According to the BCA president, the process of holding four AGMs will be made faster to get entire due amount of Rs 135 crore from the BCCI.

"The BCCI has released a grant of Rs 17 crore to BCA for the year 2013-14," Amin said, adding he met BCCI president Sourav Ganguly and discussed several plans for development of cricket.

A senior BCA official on condition of anonymity told PTI that a written communication for seeking land for the indoor academy has been made to the concerned authorities.