ipl pune team ground – Sahara Pune Warriors

MCA Pune International Cricket Centre  is the newly constructed cricket stadium in the city of Pune, Maharashtra. The stadium has come up in the Gahunje area of Mumbai-Pune Expressway near city. The stadium is the headquarter for Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA) and home ground for the Maharashtra cricket team as well Sahara Pune Warriors, the IPL team. This is  a state-of-the-art modern stadium, which  looks to be one of the best stadiums in India. The brand new Pune cricket stadium is the home ground for the new IPL team Sahara Pune Warriors. Pune IPL team will play all their home matches at this stadium.

MCA had appointed Hopkins Architects to design a MCA Pune International Cricket Centre with 44,000 seat stadium in Pune just few hours from financial city Mumbai. Earlier, Jawahar Lal Nehru Stadium was being considered for refitting the stadium for the city of Pune, but as stadium was owned by Pune Municpal Corporation, conflict arosed which led the decision to built the brand new stadium for the city of Pune.

The cost of building the stadium would be around 300 Crore Rupees or $65 Million USD. The stadium would be built in the area of 125,000m^2.

Sumedha Earth Movers commenced the levelling and excavation work on the Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA) international centre at Village Gahunje in 2009.

The work on phase one of the Rs 300 crore Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium, which is being built near Gahunje village, has been completed. The international stadium, the work for which began in 2009, was completed in April this year but owing to various delays in getting permissions and technical glitches, the work eventually concluded under a revised contract in December.

MCA president Ajay Shirke said, “Under phase one, we will have a seating capacity of 44,000 people. The seating arrangement in the stadium is such that all the spectators, irrespective of the stands they are seated, will have an unobstructed view of the entire playing field. We have kept the minutest details in mind so that the stadium is a viewer-friendly venue.” Shirke said that of the Rs 207 crore that was promised by Sahara, a total of two installments of Rs 67 crore and 41 crore have been released. “Further payments will be made as and when the stadium is completed and handed over,” he said.

Shirke said the proposal to host IPL (Indian Premier League) matches came up for discussion at the recent IPL governing council meeting. The committee, however, proposed that first class matches should be held before hosting international and IPL matches to gauge the playing surface at the venue.

“We decided to host the first class matches first and bagged an opportunity to host the semi-final between Maharashtra and Himachal Pradesh from December 21,” said Shirke.

The game, which was originally to be played in Ratnagiri, will now be played at the new stadium.

The work on the second phase of the stadium will begin from June 2012 and is likely to be completed by the end of the year. The second phase will see the expansion of the east and west stands. As many as 90 corporate boxes will be built in the stadium. The 1.25 lakh sq feet stadium will be the first stadium in the country to have a special, quick-drying outfield.

The home matches of IPL’s Pune Warriors will be played in the upcoming edition of the league. The total capacity of the stadium will be 52,000 with the grand stand alone accommodating 10,000 spectators. The road leading to the stadium will be completed by February 15.