The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : HCA ready to showcase Uppal Stadium

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Feb 21, 2005

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Sport - Cricket

HCA ready to showcase Uppal Stadium

By Our Sports Reporter

HYDERABAD, FEB. 20. The beaming faces of the Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) officials said it all. And the reason for their happiness was that Sachin Tendulkar was happy with the facilities at the new Uppal Cricket stadium.

Leading the West Zone team against South Zone in the four-day Duleep Trophy match to be played from Tuesday, Tendulkar monitored his team's training session at the venue in the afternoon. Three practice wickets were placed at their disposal and everything seemed to be going right for HCA, at least for now.

N. Shivlal Yadav, secretary, told The Hindu that HCA was keen to show that it is ready to host an international match by conducting this Duleep Trophy match in a successful manner. "We have taken every precaution to ensure that there are no complaints," he said. The HCA has spent Rs. 22 crore on the stadium so far and another Rs.13 crore needs to be spent before the stadium is fully complete — including the clubhouse, tennis courts, swimming pool and other recreational facilities. "Floodlighting project is different and it should cost about Rs.6 crore," he added.

The HCA Secretary said that adequate care has been taken to prepare the pitch. The dressing rooms with all modern facilities are ready and so are the rooms for the umpires, match referee and the commentators' boxes (both TV and AIR). There is no live telecast of the match, however.

The HCA Secretary also informed that provision has been made to accommodate nearly 30,000 spectators for the Duleep Trophy match. "We are using this match to make necessary improvements for the one-day match between India `A' and the visiting Pakistanis allotted to us."

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