The Hayatabad Sports Complex was recently looked upon as a potential venue to host Peshawar Zalmi’s home matches in the sixth season of Pakistan Super League coming up next year.
The Hayatabad Sports Complex was selected for future PSL 6 matches after the Arbab Niaz Stadium’s rebuilding process could not be completed on time.
Back in July this yaer, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s finance minister Taimur Khan Jhagra took it to twitter to share the news. “Some good news for Hayatabad! We will hopefully bring PSL to Peshawar next year & to the wonderful ground in the sports complex in Hayatabad. As we develop this ground, we agreed to keep the beautiful grassy banks that could give this ground a unique character in Pakistan,” he wrote in his tweet.
However, unfortunately, it seems very unlikely that the Hayatabad Sports Complex would host any PSL games in the upcoming edition, owing to a variety of problems that have surfaced regarding the venue.
According to recent media reports, The Pakistan Cricket Board has been unhappy with the state of readiness of the stadium.
Zakir Khan, the Director Cricket of the Pakistan Cricket Board, along with seven officials made an official visit to the site to gauge its progress, where they were briefed about the stadium.
The inspection team has expressed its reservations, in terms of facilities and security at the Hayatabad Sports Complex.
The team also pointed out that there are a number of high-rise buildings in the vicinity of the stadium which makes it less ideal to host the Pakistan Super League (PSL) next season.
Before the Hayatabad Sports Complex, Arbab Niaz Stadium was announced as a potential venue for the upcoming PSL season
Earlier last year, Peshawar’s Arbab Niaz Stadium was cited as a potential venue to host Peshawar Zalmi’s home games in the upcoming season of Pakistan Super League.
However, due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the stadium could not be prepared to host the next PSL season. Representatives of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government told PCB that the Arbab Niaz stadium was scheduled to be ready by the end of June, but the work progress was severely hampered due to the current ongoing circumstances.
KP government plans to address the issues and upgrade both the stadiums to meet international standards
While we wait for a final decision from PCB officials who recently paid visits to both stadiums, the provincial government has claimed that the reservations of the Pakistan Cricket Board regarding the readiness of the stadium will be addressed and the stadiums will be prepared within the scheduled time.
The provincial gvernment also recently released a grant of Rs.400 million for the project to get the stadium up to international standards.
Asfandyar Khattak, the DG Sports Directorate, claimed that they were trying to transform the venue into an international-level sports complex.
Khattak also revealed that the PCB Chairman Ehsan Mani was interested in bringing the PSL to Peshawar and that the provincial government is in constant contact with the Pakistan Cricket Board.
Sources also mention that Prime Minister Imran Khan has shown keen interest in the venture and is looking forward to witnessing another year of international cricket coming home.
Peshawar will be the fifth city to host PSL matches after Rawalpindi and Multan successfully hosted several games this year.
And while the provincial government is promising to upgrade the stadiums to a high-standard sports complex, cricket fans are of the view that those efforts might just fall short, at least for now.
What are your thoughts on this development? What are the odds of Peshawar being fully prepared for the upcoming PSL season in such a short span? Let us know in the comments.
