THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: After a gap of 29 years, Thiruvananthapuram will host an international match — a 20-20 tournament between India and Sri Lanka — on December 20. This will be the first international cricket match to be held at Kariyavattom greenfield stadium which was commissioned in 2015. The city had in the past hosted two international matches at its university stadium. One was between Australia and India in 1984 and the second was between West Indies and India in 1988.
“With this, the Kerala Cricket Association will be the only one apart from Mumbai Cricket Association to have two international cricket stadia. We hope we will be able to host the match with full capacity,” said BCCI vice-president T.C. Mathew. The announcement was made by BCCI after its tour programme and fixture committee meeting held in Kolkata.
The Kariyavattom stadium has an official capacity of 55,000 as against 60,000 of Kochi Jawah-arlal Nehru stadium, which has been trimmed down to around 42,000 for U-17 FIFA World Cup due to safety reasons. Though a match request for Kochi was long pending before the BCCI, the stadium will not be available as it will host the U-17 football World Cup and India Super League this year. The Kariyavattom stadium was built on a DBOT (Design-Build- Operate and Transfer) basis for the 2015 National Games at a cost of over Rs 300 crore.
