Pakistan plan new stadium in Islamabad

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Thu May 25, 2006 9:53 AM BST

             KARACHI, May 25 (Reuters) - Pakistani cricket authorities are planning a new stadium in the capital Islamabad to host matches at the 2008 Champions Trophy and 2012 World Cup, a senior Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) official told Reuters on Thursday.

“We are acquiring land in Islamabad and will sign a memorandum of understanding soon,” PCB director of cricket operations Saleem Altaf said.

“We are hoping the new stadium will be ready before the Champions Trophy.”

Pakistan were awarded hosting rights for the 2008 Champions Trophy and the 2012 World Cup, in a joint-bid with India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, by the International Cricket Council (ICC) in Dubai last month.

“We only own two stadiums in Karachi and Lahore. The rest of the stadiums we have to hire from the local administrations, which is why we want to have our own venue in Islamabad,” Altaf said.

The Pakistan board often encounter financial problems and organisational issues where the local administration has control of stadiums.

** Despite being a top-ranked cricket nation, Pakistan only has six active test and international venues** in Karachi, Lahore, Faisalabad, Multan, Rawalpindi and Peshawar.

The ICC expressed reservations over the ground conditions and facilities at the stadium in Peshawar after a one-day match against India in February.

Altaf said the PCB had studied the details of a cricket stadium being built in Dubai’s sports city and would try to implement some of the design aspects at the Islamabad stadium.

Source: Reuters UK

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Re: Pakistan plan new stadium in Islamabad

Kindly merge the current thread with this thread already in existence. :slight_smile:

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Re: Pakistan plan new stadium in Islamabad

Crap..should've done a search first, sorry.

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Re: Pakistan plan new stadium in Islamabad


No worries, Sohail Bhai. It will be merged soon, hopefully.

Glad to see your participation in the Cricket forum. :)

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Re: Pakistan plan new stadium in Islamabad


Despite the fact that we have round-about 15 individual grounds in the entire country (albeit more than half of them are the standards that of club-quality), amongst this entire set, we only have six active venues currently used for International cricket. Apart from building new venues for Champions Trophy and the World Cup (Refering to the future construction of new stadiums to be built in Sahiwal and Rawalpindi alongwith the making of a five-star hotel in the suburbs of Hyderabad to support both the teams and ground crew), PCB should also focus on completely renovating and re-designing the rest of the grounds in the country, which are predicted to be in deplorable condition. The Qabristan pitches used in the likes of cities such as Lahore and Faisalabad should at least be modernized to support both sides of the game, and not make it an entire one-sided contest.

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Re: Pakistan plan new stadium in Islamabad

If the new stadium is to be ready for ICC trophy in 2008, is there much time left if they really want it to be a true international standard? What I mean to say is that if they want a modern international stadium then obviously they will need time not only to build it but everything else which is needed before and after.

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Re: Pakistan plan new stadium in Islamabad

We always do wrong first and then think…there was no need to make the pindi stadium in its original postion as It was in middle of city almost…they shd have thought abt this in 1991 when they built …I always wanted to see a stadium in Islamabad instead as It offers more views to the world…but I donot know where they will make this one …but yes they will copy the dubai studium which is under construction..
Also few yrs back in 1997-98 Govt. had Plan to make three stadiums in Murree(boorbun),Abbotabad,and in Quetta so international cricket could play in summer…but donot know why they postponed this??:teary1:

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Re: Pakistan plan new stadium in Islamabad

the pcb is usually very inconsistent and construction projects in pakistan tend to take longer than usual.

however, i have a gut-feeling that this project will be completed on time (2008), and will be a state-of-the-art stadium as they claim. i say this because it seems the pcb is willing to invest money on this project because they are aware of its potential revenue generation--

i'm excited to see the turnout. also, i wonder when they're going to start on the stadium in gwadar? any word on that, or is it still up in the air like most things promised by the pcb? haha

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Re: Pakistan plan new stadium in Islamabad

Waste of money.

Land in Islamabad is too expensive and they have a nice international cricket stadium in Pindi just minutes away from Islamabad. I'ld put more money in bettering they condition of current grounds rather than building one and that too minutes away from another international venue.

Look at the condition of Peshawer, Hydherabad etc stadiums. If PCB has to spend money they should spend it on

  • Making the condistions of current grounds better

  • Build new grounds in the cities that does not already have international venues like i support the idea of ground in Gawader.

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Re: Pakistan plan new stadium in Islamabad

If its going to be state of the art in terms of international standards then I am not sure if its going to be ready by 2008.

Also - will they be able to afford or willing to spend similar amount of money as spent on Abu Dhabi stadium?

I will wait to see the plans when they are finalised to see if its really going to be the stateof the art. Maybe it will be the state of the art for Pakistan standards but may not for international standards i.e. better then all the other grounds in Pakistan but still not good as state of the grounds in other countries.

They constructed another stadium in Sheikhpura - its seems a decent stadium much better then Peshawar. I wondered why they don't hold matches there?

What's going on?
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Re: Pakistan plan new stadium in Islamabad


I absolutely concur. Instead of putting money in stocks which are already drifting downhill by each passing day, the money should be carefully spent on the particular ones which are already existing before-hand but which fail to pass the tests to be selected for International junctions. More than half a dozen of our pre-built grounds are in poor stature and the situation is not further helped by organizing a week's worth of shaadi functions in those stadiums, hence making it effectively worthless to play cricket in those fields.

Arbab Niaz Stadium in Peshawar should be one of the first priorities at the top of the list, after it gained a stamp of incompetence by the ICC, alongwith several other places mentioned above which have poor construction all-around.

And then we have the likes of Wasim Bari who profusely come out with nonsense statements in the press indicating that the fielding is a major quality which will be heavily looked and closely scrutnized in selecting future candidates for the National team, altogether completely overlooking the fact that the problem starts at the root-level (which has been mentioned several times in the past). If one is unable to allocate proper funds to seamlessly develop and built state-of-the-art grounds then the general expectations of the fielders should be kept in accordance. Here we have entirely the opposite.

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Re: Pakistan plan new stadium in Islamabad

Has someone seen the state of the old Multain stadium?

By maintaining the old stadium could have had more use rather then allowing people dig the ground for clay etc.........

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Re: Pakistan plan new stadium in Islamabad

Dhobi_Bhai. Youa re absolutely right.

Below is something which I wrote before in one of the other threads and ties in with what you have stated above:

Is attention going to be paid to the ground surface and laid properly (so that the playing surface is softer as a result of being laid it properly beneath) for the planned state of the stadium in Islamabad?

Also, I wonder who is going to be involved in its planning? It is important that the expert people are involved in its design and construction. However the way PCB operates and its chairmain having the final say would that be possible? May be not.

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Re: Pakistan plan new stadium in Islamabad

I vividly remember reading your above post quite thoroughly, Rock_Express Bhai. Well stated.

You mentioned the old Multan Cricket ground up above......that would be the Ibn-e-Qasim Bagh Stadium, yes?

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Re: Pakistan plan new stadium in Islamabad

Yes I think this is the one. I remember seeing a report on GEO TV during one of the home series and they showed the new stadium and the old one. Hoesntly I just couldn't believe the state it was in, there were holes all over the ground, people digging for clay etc.

Maybe the local administration has sold the land, I am not sure but if they haven't then surely they could have made some effort in maintaining it so that some use could have been made from it.

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Re: Pakistan plan new stadium in Islamabad

PCB racing against time to build stadium in Islamabad

By Khalid Hussain

KARACHI: Pakistan have begun a race against time to set up a world-class cricket stadium in Islamabad by 2008 when the country would host the International Cricket Council (ICC) Champions Trophy for the first time.

A top Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) official told ‘The News’ on Thursday that a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) would soon be signed with the Capital Development Authority (CDA) for the allocation of land to build the proposed stadium.

“We have a couple of major tournaments to host in the coming years and would like to add to the existing cricket facilities,” said Saleem Altaf, PCB’s Director of Cricket Operations.

Pakistan are to stage the biennial Champions Trophy in 2008 and would be the co-hosts for the 2011 World Cup with India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

Altaf conceded it would be a race against time if Pakistan want to have the facility in Islamabad ready ahead of the Champions Trophy. “But it is a possibility,” he said, adding the PCB would make efforts to fast forward the process.

The PCB is presently waiting for a physical possession of a piece of land which it is to get from the CDA. “Once we get the physical possession then the actual work can begin,” he said.

Altaf said the PCB would start issuing tenders for the construction of the stadium once it gets possession of the land in Islamabad.

“We hope if everything goes according to the schedule, the stadium would be ready by the end of next year,” he said.

Pakistan might extract some aspects from the design of a cricket stadium being built in the Dubai Sports Citywhile finalising its own blueprint for the proposed stadium in Islamabad. The stadium in Dubai, once completed, is expected to be counted among the best cricket facilities in the world.

Islamabad does not have a cricket stadium of international standard. Test and one-dayers are, however, regularly played in its twin city Rawalpindi. But the stadium in Rawalpindi is not controlled by the PCB, as it has to hire the facility from the local authorities.

The PCB, in fact, has the administrative control of just two Test venues — the Gaddafi Stadium Lahore and the National Stadium (Karachi).

Source: http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=7941

I wonder if the tender’s from overseas also be invited in the construction of the stadium. If the tenders are only open to Pakistan firms then will they be able to construct or do they have the experience of constructing a worlc-class stadium in Pakistan.

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Re: Pakistan plan new stadium in Islamabad

Click on the link below for a design of the proposed cricket stadium in Dubai.

http://www.dubaisportscity.ae/wp-content/files/Image/content/content_venues_cricket.jpg

The 25,000 seat stadium, which is expandable to 30,000, will have state-of-the-art facilities for players, match officials, VIPs, spectators and the media. It will be one of the most advanced of its kind in the world and the International Cricket Council (ICC), the world-governing body of cricket, has been involved at all stages of the design process to ensure that the stadium meets the relevant specifications for hosting international cricket fixtures.

Also - found another useful link related to the above:
http://www.ameinfo.com/79610.html

The PCB wants to copy some aspects of this proposed stadium in Dubai. I wonder what they will copy and what the rest is going to look like. When they talk about world class - will they be able to construct anything like this in Pakistan especially since costs involved and hiring the best people i.e. architects, constructions companies etc?