Lahore's Gaddafi stadium is ready for international cricket: PCB

Lahore: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Thursday announced that the renovation and upgradation work at Lahore's Gaddafi stadium has been completed in record time of 117 days and it is now ready to host international matches, including the ICC Champions Trophy.

The PCB said in a statement said that the new-look stadium now has better facilities, new floodlights, hospitality boxes, increased seating capacity, electronic scoreboards and top of the line LED towers.

"I am grateful to all those people who put in day and night of work to get the stadium ready on time despite the apprehensions and criticism," PCB Chief Mohsin Naqvi said.

It was reported recently that PCB was running behind by at least five weeks in completing the work. PCB is required to handover the stadiums to the ICC by February 12 as the tournament begins a week after.

Prime Minister, Shahbaz Sharif will officially inaugurate the stadium on Friday during a ceremony, where notable artists such as Ali Zafar, Aima Baig, and Arif Lohar will perform live.

"I am specially obligated to the nearly 1000 workers who made this dream possible," Naqvi said and promised a much better viewing experience for spectators with elevated seating and removal of the high fencing around the ground.

The new stadium will be put to the test on February 8 when Pakistan and New Zealand play the opening game of the tri-series, also involving South Africa.

The PCB will hold a similar inauguration ceremony of the National stadium in Karachi on February 11 with President Asif Zardari expected to grace the occasion.

Naqvi has admitted that the budget allocated for the upgradation of the three stadiums in Lahore, Karachi and Rawalpindi had crossed the initial evaluations but said the new state-of-the-art venues would serve Pakistan cricket well in the future.

The PCB had initially allocated a 12.8 billion rupees for the work but apparently the budget is said to have crossed 18 billion rupees.

The PCB said the projects were managed with PCB money and no assistance from any other source, including the government, was taken.