Bengaluru’s historic M. Chinnaswamy Stadium has been struggling, as one of the country’s most prominent cricketing venues has been unable to stage any events since the stampede disaster that killed 11 people in and around the stadium on June 4. However, former India cricketer Venkatesh Prasad has promised to bring cricket back to the city and restore Chinnaswamy’s reputation.
Notably, Prasad will run in the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) elections, which will take place on Wednesday, August 27 in Bangalore. Following the tragic stampede, ES Jairam and A Shankar quit their respective offices on’moral responsibility’ grounds, leaving the state association without a secretary or treasurer. Prasad intends to occupy an administrative role at KSCA in order to effect change.
“We would like to bring back international cricket. It’s such an iconic venue, Chinnaswamy Stadium, which has been standing for the last 50 years. This [permission to host matches] is something which has never happened. Even our own Maharaja T20 Trophy has also been moved out, which is not a good thing,” Prasaid said in an interaction with.
Plans on increasing Chinnaswamy’s seating capacity
Furthermore, Prasad also talked about a change in seating structure at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, which will help KSCA increase its seating capacity up to 50,000 spectators. The current structure can accommodate close to 35,000 fans, but with time, things need to change. With demand always high for games in the cricket-crazy city of Bengaluru, 50,000 spectators seems just and will be hugely welcomed by the fraternity.
“We need to work on that. Because as I said earlier, this was built in 1974. I’m sure we cannot take it to 80,000 and so on. So probably another 15,000 more, maybe up to 50,000, and now it’s 34,000-35,000.”
The venue is originally scheduled to host four games of the impending Women’s ODI World Cup. However, failure to obtain security permissions from the local government and law enforcement authorities has now forced the ICC to re-think of allocating the matches to another venue, with the Greenfield International Stadium in Thiruvananthapuram emerging as the frontrunner.
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