Cricket World Cup: Afghanistan's love-affair with 'Ekana Stadium'

Lucknow was the home ground of Afghanistan for a long time. Here Afghanistan also played a Test against the West Indies. This was the only Test played at the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Stadium. Overall, it can be said that Afghanistan has played more matches in this stadium than India.

Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh): After the Indian team, the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Stadium here is special for Afghanistan. Due to the huge influence of the 'Taliban' in Afghanistan, the International Cricket Council (ICC) allowed Afghanistan to practice and play international matches in India.

Lucknow was the home ground of Afghanistan for a long time. Here Afghanistan also played a Test against the West Indies. This was the only Test played at the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Stadium. Overall, it can be said that Afghanistan has played more matches in this stadium than India.

The stadium has been constructed by the Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association (UPCA). It is the second international stadium in the state after Green Park in Kanpur.

The influence of the Taliban was so much in Afghanistan that domestic cricket was not possible there. When the Afghanistan team started playing international cricket, they were looking for a ground that could become their home ground. When the International Cricket Council (ICC) requested BCCI for this in 2018, first the ground in Dehradun, Uttarakhand to Afghanistan. After which, the ground in Greater Noida (Uttar Pradesh) also remained Afghanistan's home ground for some time and later the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Stadium in Lucknow was chosen. Here the Afghanistan team played many international matches. The interesting thing is that a large number of fans from Afghanistan also started reaching Lucknow.

However, after 2019, Dubai was made the home ground of Afghanistan.

Director of Atal Bihari Vajpayee Stadium, Uday Kumar Sinha said that the Afghanistan team was very happy with the arrangements of the stadium. From the pitch to hospitality, the players never faced any problems. They performed well in many international matches here.

Afghanistan played these matches against the West Indies in 2019: ODIs on 6th, 9th and 11th November. T20International on 14, 16 and 17 November and a one-off Test match from November 27 to December 1.