Although Hyderabad’s Niaz Stadium has not hosted an international match since January 2008 when Zimbabwe took on the hosts in a One-Day International (ODI), it stands tall in the nation’s cricketing history with records achieved on it.
The 1,000th Test match, Jalaluddin registering the first-ever ODI hat-trick, Javed Miandad scoring a career-best 280 and holding the inaugural match of the 1987 World Cup have etched Niaz Stadium’s name in the history books. It will also celebrate its own half-century next month, 27 years after the last Test was played on the ground.
The historic stadium is currently in shambles. Hyderabad’s district government handed over the stadium to the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) in 2007 on a 30-year extendable lease. It was being used to hold functions and weddings at that time but the board managed to turn things around remarkably and hosted Zimbabwe.
“The stadium will be developed according to the international standard,” former PCB chairman Nasim Ashraf had said while signing an MoU in July 2007. The only development has been the standardising of the outfield, according to a regional officer. A privately sponsored enclosure is the only decent thing standing with a structure formerly used as a ground-floor pavilion with VIP seats, crying out for repairs. The two-storey pavilion houses termite-ridden cupboards, once used to store players’ belongings, crumbling washrooms and broken frames of historic photographs.
At the time of the handover, former District Nazim Hyderabad Kanwar Navid Jamil expected big things and the district government had allotted Rs20 million for that purpose. The PCB’s interest, however, stalled.
“It’s sad that a stadium built with so much devotion by the person it is named after is neglected by its subsequent caretakers,” said Afzal Gujjar, a former PCB official.
Niaz Stadium was originally built as a football ground, inaugurated in 1962 by then-commissioner Hyderabad division Niaz Ahmed.
“The commissioner had placed charity boxes in Hyderabad’s cinema halls to collect money for construction and people used to contribute 10 or 20 paisas,” recalled Shakil Qurehsi, a sports enthusiast.
The stadium hosted over 6,000 spectators when the last ODI was played here but complaints existed then too.
“We have plans to construct two or three storey structures to increase capacity,” said Hyderabad Regional Cricket Association President and PCB’s governing body member Mir Hyder Talpur.
Nadeem Sarwar, PCB’s general manager media, denied knowledge of any such plans, adding that the main obstacle is the absence of a five-star hotel in the city.
Zaka Ashraf will be visiting the stadium on January 8 for the golden jubilee celebration. Regional officers will be pressing for improvements with a hope that the stadium still stands tall 50 years from then.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 25th, 2011.
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