fter Quetta’s Bugti Stadium hosted a Pakistan Super League (PSL) exhibition match, and with rumours rife that cricket might be returning to Peshawar’s Arbab Niaz Stadium next year, Sindh cricket fans’ agonizing wait to see international cricket returning to Niaz Stadium Hyderabad is beginning to seem never-ending.

The historic Niaz Stadium, established by then-commissioner Niaz Ahmed in 1959, has not hosted a single fixture of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) despite several announcements to the effect by Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah.

Niaz Stadium, the only international Test stadium in Sindh outside Karachi, has hosted a national football championship and many hockey matches in the past. The historic stadium which can accommodate up to 15,000 spectators, hosted the first Test match against England in 1973.

The stadium has so far hosted five Test matches; two each against England and New Zealand, and one against India. The last Test was played in Niaz Stadium between Pakistan and New Zealand in November 1984.

The 1980s were the stadium’s golden period. It hosted matches against the world’s top teams and staged the inaugural match of the 1987 Reliance World Cup. The stadium hosted Pakistan-versus-India ODI on September 28, 1997. After that there was a long drought of matches and no international cricket was held until January 2008.

In the 10-year since then, the stadium has been used as a helipad for transporting VIPs. It was later converted into a marriage hall. The stadium’s condition was getting worse day by day and realising the situation the-then district nazim Kanwar Naveed Jamil handed it over to the PCB under a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for administrative purposes and infrastructural development.

“Under the MoU signed between the PCB and Hyderabad’s local government, it was agreed that improvements would be made to structure and outfield at PCB’s expense. It was further agreed that the share of income from International matches or commercial activities would belong to local government,” recalled former Hyderabad Region’s cricket association president Mir Suleman Talpur.

After taking over the control of the stadium, the PCB organised a one-dayer between Pakistan and Zimbabwe in January 2008. “When the PCB organized an ODI match, the outfield was not worthy of play so four lawns were taken out in patches from Tando Jam Agricultural University and supplanted in the stadium,” Mir Suleman Talpur told the News on Sunday.

He said that the PCB was planning the renovation of the stadium but on March 3, 2009, the Sri Lankan cricket team was attacked. Thereafter all international teams refused to visit Pakistan. That led to a lull in PCB’s plans.

“At the 23rd Governing Body meeting, held at Garhi Khuda Bux, the then Hyderabad Region Cricket Association president Mir Hyder Talpur convinced the PCB of the desirability of the renovation of Niaz Stadium. The PCB then announced that floodlights would be installed to enable day and night matches. However, a change of government left all these plans in limbo,” Mir Talpur added.

The ground remained with the PCB for 11 years until the Qasimabad Municipal Committee revoked the MoU on April 2, 2018, and seized its control.

Since 2018, the municipal administration has been looking after the stadium but no matches have been held here for a very long time. The stadium has hosted hundreds of first-class matches and provided cricket fans with an opportunity to see former stars like Mohammad Hafeez, Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Amir, Kamran Akmal and Umar Akmal in action.

“Since the municipal committee took over the administrative control of the stadium, anyone can now enter the fields without any hindrance as there are no guards around the stadium to stop them from stepping onto pitches or loitering around,” Talpur said.

He said that as international cricket was returning to Pakistan and PCB had started holding PSL matches, the cricket watchdog was planning something for Niaz Stadium as well.

Talpur said that he had discussed the renovation of Niaz Stadium with the current PCB Management Committee chairman Najam Sethi “I have talked with Najam Sethi about the revival of ground. He gave me a positive response. The PCB chief is optimistic about bringing international cricket to Hyderabad. It is, after all, the only venue in Sindh besides National Bank Cricket Arena, Karachi,” said Talpur.

He also proposed the idea of commercialising Niaz stadium on the pattern of Gaddafi Stadium, Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium or Iqbal Stadium, Faisalabad. “The stadium can be run in a public private partnership (PPP) mode or by allowing the businesses around Niaz Stadium like Gaddafi Stadium.”

Upgrade soon

Speaking to the News on Sunday, Hafizur Rahman, the former cricketer and consultant Niaz Stadium, blamed the PCB for not honouring commitments made in the MoU. “The PCB has invested in other cricket projects like renovating the NSK, constructing new pavilion buildings in Lahore, Rawalpindi stadium, but they wasted 11 years and failed to honour the commitments envisaged in the MoU,” said Rehman.

“The uplift plan included seating capacity enhancement, installation of a digital scoreboard, floodlights and renovation of dressing rooms along with other modern facilities necessary for cricket. However, they did nothing except for maintaining the outfield,” he added.

He went on to say that the Sindh chief secretary, Sohail Rajput, who also belongs to Hyderabad, had been in touch with Sindh chief minister for the reconstruction of the historic ground. “The entire ground will be demolished and then upgraded with a seating capacity of 50,000. The renovation project is in pipeline. The work will start soon,” said Hafiz.

The records

Pakistan remained undefeated both in Tests and One-Day Internationals (ODIs) at Niaz Stadium. “The world’s 1,000th Test match was played between Pakistan and New Zealand here (with Javed Miandad scoring 100 in each inning),” recalls sports journalist Shakeel Qureshi.

“In 1983, Javed Miandad scored an unbeaten 280 against India at this venue,” he said, adding that Jalaluddin had taken the first hat-trick in One-day International cricket in a match at the Niaz Stadium. It is also the stadium where Imran Khan played his last cricket match in Pakistan against Sri Lanka on January 15, 1992,” said Qureshi.

Since the ground was handed over to QMC, Niaz Stadium has been relegated to hosting local tournaments and tennis ball matches. Termites have eaten the cupboards in the players’ dressing rooms, the stairs in general enclosures are fast crumbling, the outfield is in a bad shape and the main pavilion building needs a thorough renovation. The entire stadium needs to be renovated.

The writer is a Karachi -based reporter.