Ahmedabad: Within the next six months, Gujarat’s Ahmedabad will unveil the world’s largest cricket stadium that can accommodate 1.1 lakh spectators. This is possible thanks to the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said Union home minister and Gujarat Cricket Association (GCA) president Amit Shah.

Ahmedabad’s Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Stadium will be replaced with this new world-class stadium. The earlier stadium which saw the legendary Sunil Gavaskar score his 10,000th Test run, had a capacity of 50,000.

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The new stadium is likely to be unveiled in December this year or January, 2020. Now, Melbourne Cricket Stadium (MCG) is the largest cricket stadium in the world with one lakh capacity.

"This project is the vision of our Prime Minister. It was his dream that Gujarat, and India, should have a world-class infrastructure in cricket, a game that generates a billion inspirations across the country. We are happy with the way work has progressed and the way the stadium is coming up," Shah told The Times of India on Saturday (August 31).

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"In some months from now, the work will reach its completion and I am sure it will be a moment of pride for India and Indian cricket. The best expertise was sought on planning this entire project. Cricket in India is more than just a sport. It is an emotion," Shah added.

"At first, the idea was to put the stadium up for renovation. A good 30 years had passed and it was time to re-do the existing infrastructure. We made a presentation and took it to our (then) president Modi (who was GCA president until 2013) but he had a different vision. It was his idea that we should bring down the entire structure and start once again from scratch. His only suggestion was that whatever we do, it should be on a big scale and be one of the best in the world," said GCA vice-president Parimal Nathwani.