Bangalore may well get its second and most modern cricket stadium, courtesy Ashok Kheny, founder-managing director, Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise (NICE).
The stadium, planned to accommodate 90,000 spectators, will be built at the intersection of the Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor (BMIC) Road and Magadi Road.
But, what has encouraged Kheny to take up such a project?
“When I came to Bangalore in 1995, there were seven players from Karnataka in the Indian cricket team. Today there are none. There is something lacking today. I want to fix that,” said Kheny.
In a move to rectify that, he is planning to build the modern cricket stadium and a state-of-the-art sports academy in Bangalore.
“This will be a completely modern stadium. It will hava a capacity of accommodating about 90,000 people, and we have just finished work on the design. The stadium should be up by 2013,” he said after launching the logo of Karnataka Bulldozers, the Karnataka franchise of the Celebrity Cricket League (CCL) which he has purchased.
“I am hoping that in two years, I would be able to host the CCL games for Bangalore in our stadium,” he said.
“I have a 26-acre area right across the land where the stadium is planned where I propose to build a sports academy,” he said.
“This will be a one-stop academy where we’ll have the best faculty training all the talented youngsters in Karnataka. I am very fond of sports and I hope to see Karnataka players representing India in all sports at the international level. I will give my all for that,” he said.
