Motera Stadium Gears Up For T20 Double-Headers

Double-headers in the Indian Premier League (IPL) are generally held at separate venues. If a 4 pm match is in one city, an 8 pm match on the same day will be at a different venue.

However, Ahmedabad's Sardar Patel (Gujarat) Stadium in Motera, which has been reconstructed from scratch to accommodate a record 1,10,000 spectators and will host the third Test between India and England from Wednesday, is looking to hold the double-headers in one day all on its own.

"We have four dressing rooms at the venue," Gujarat Cricket Association secretary Anil Patel told IANS.

"The T20 leagues like IPL or Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 or any other such tournament often see two matches in a day. We are ensuring that the teams coming for the later match can walk into their dressing rooms, put their kits and start warming up in the practice area. The teams playing the first game can go on uninterrupted," Patel explained:

Although not a novelty since Lucknow's Ekana International Stadium has two sets of dressing rooms, Ahmedabad becomes significant because it is expected to be home to a new franchise that would join the IPL next year.

The new Motera stadium also has a ramp for handicapped fans - 500 handicapped fans have been given free entry for the third Test, Indian cricket board secretary Jay Shah confirmed.

The stadium also has LED lights and not towers. Until Tuesday night, the Gujarat Cricket Association did not share the details about the number of tickets sold but it said that it has been able to sell most of them.

If the association is able to sell the targeted 50 percent of the tickets, then it will mean 55,000 fans, and that will easily be the most number of fans to see a cricket match - or a sporting event - in India since the Covid-enforced lockdown began in March last year.