Malaysia to set up exclusive cricket stadium

The Malaysian Cricket Association will have a stadium exclusively for cricket by January next year, revealed Sivanandan Chinnadurai, the secretary of the Malaysian Cricket Association.

Chinnadurai is here as the manager of the Malaysian team, which is playing against UAE in a three-day match as part of the ACC Fast Track countries tournament.

"The stadium will be in a township called Kinrara in Kuala Lumpur. It will be a fully turfed ground with six strips," Chinnadurai told the Gulf News.

Malaysia has already got four international standard cricket grounds in Royal Selangor Club, Bayuemas, Selangor turf club, Club Aman and National Electricity Board ground.

They had recently hosted the ACC Trophy and is all set to stage the eight-nation ICC World Cup qualifier tournament in February next year.

"This stadium will be owned by our association and is being built at a cost of 4.5 million Malaysian ringgit, (equivalent to Dh4.5 million). Half the cost of the pavilion will be met by our sponsors Kinrara. They have even allotted the land for us," he explained.

"Cricket is yet to be a popular game but it is spreading fast with 13 of the 14 states competing in our inter-state matches. We have also set up cricket centres in different areas of our country," said Chinnadurai.

"If our team can qualify for the World Cup then we may get more sponsorship support. Hence, we are in the process of giving exposure for youngsters," he said.

"Most of the boys in this team are Under-19 boys and we are in the process of building a strong youth team. We have also bid to host the Under-19 World Cup in 2006," he said.