Ekana Cricket Stadium

Ekana Cricket Stadium also known as Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee (BRSABV) Ekana Cricket Stadium or Ekana Sports City is an international cricket stadium in Lucknow, India. The arena has a seating capacity of 50,000, and is the fifth largest international cricket stadium of India. In 2018, the stadium was renamed after India's 10th Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. It was formerly named Ekana International Cricket Stadium, and locals call it as Ekana Cricket Stadium. As of 18 Jan 2024, it has hosted 1 Test, 9 ODIs and 6 T20Is.

The stadium has the longest straight boundaries in comparison to all the stadiums in India. It is the home ground of Uttar Pradesh cricket team, UP women's cricket team and IPL franchise the Lucknow Super Giants.

In 2019, the Afghanistan cricket team used it as their home ground. K.D. Singh Babu stadium used to host international cricket matches in Lucknow before the venue was built.

The arena hosted the five matches of the 2023 Men's Cricket World Cup.

History
The project for constructing the world class stadium in Lucknow was commissioned in 2014, and the stadium was built under public-private partnership between Ekana Sportz City and Lucknow Development Authority. Ekana Sportz City is a Joint venture between Nagarjuna Construction Company, GC Construction & Development Industries Pvt Ltd.

As per the agreement of the partnership, the government provided Ekana Sportz City with 35-year lease of 71 acres to build the cricket stadium, with the lease running through 2052. In addition, the government also provided 66 additional acres of land for real estate projects on a 99-year lease. The cricket stadium has been built with a budget of 360 crores (3.6 billion rupees).

Before its international debut, it also hosted the final of the 2017–18 Duleep Trophy. The stadium was allocated the 3rd ODI between India and New Zealand to be held on 27 Oct 2017. However, the venue was shifted to Kanpur after the stadium was declared incomplete.

On 6 November 2018, the stadium hosted its first international match, a Twenty20 International (T20I) between India and the West Indies, becoming the 52nd stadium in India to host an international cricket match. International cricket match returned to Lucknow after 24 years, after the India and Sri Lanka test match of 1994. In that match Rohit Sharma became the first cricketer to score four centuries in T20Is. India won that match by 71 runs. The last time Lucknow hosted an international match was in January 1994, when India played a test match against Sri Lanka at the K.D. Singh Babu Stadium.

In May 2019, Afghanistan Cricket Board requested the BCCI to use this venue for their international matches. In August 2019, BCCI awarded the venue to Afghanistan national cricket team as their third home venue in India, being previously played in Dehradun and Greater Noida.

It hosted all the matches during Afghanistan vs West Indies series in 2019. On 6 November 2019, the venue hosted its first ODI match. On 27 November 2019, the venue hosted its first Test match.

In May 2022, the venue was scheduled to host all the matches of the fourth edition of Women's T20 Challenge. However, later the matches were shifted to Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune.

Events
The venue has hosted two major events organized by the UP government.

Award distribution ceremony
On 19 August 2021, an award giving ceremony was held at the stadium by the state government to honor the athletes who won the medals at 2020 Summer Olympics that was held in 2021 at Tokyo, Japan. They all were facilitated with monetary rewards given by the Uttar Pradesh government. The highest prize was given to Neeraj Chopra who was the only one from India to won gold medal in Javelin throw.

Swearing-in ceremony
On 25 March 2022, at the venue Yogi Adityanath took oath as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh along with his cabinet, after his impressive victory in 2022 Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly elections. The oath was given by the Governor of state, Anandiben Patel.

Many VVIP's, celebrities, big businessmen were invited in the ceremony including the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home minister Amit Shah and the Chief Ministers of NDA led states.

Test matches
Only one Test century has been scored at the venue.

One Day Internationals
Three ODI centuries have been scored at the venue, two in a men's match and one in a women's match.

Twenty20 Internationals
Only one T20I century has been scored at the venue.