With the Champions Trophy less than a month away from its start, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman, Mohsin Naqvi, visited the under-renovation Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore a couple of days ago to take stock of the remaining work. But the visuals from the video of the visit don’t paint a very rosy picture to meet the January 25 deadline for completion of work.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) shared a video featuring clips from Naqvi’s visit to inspect the state of work, which showed a significant amount of it still left to be completed.
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The Champions Trophy begins on February 19, with Pakistan to host matches in Lahore, Karachi and Rawalpindi. The tournament will be played in a hybrid format, as India will play all their matches in Dubai as per an agreement between the PCB, International Cricket Council (ICC) and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
Reacting to the video of Naqvi’s visit, fans expressed doubt whether work can be completed by January 25. The revamped venue is scheduled to be inaugurated on January 27.
The Gaddafi Stadium is also scheduled to host the second semifinal.
The PCB chairman, however, was confident that the stadium will be ready in time and said that it’s “fully complete”, with only the finishing work remaining.
“The grey structure of the Gaddafi Stadium is now fully complete, with finishing work progressing rapidly,” Naqvi said about the 34,000-capacity stadium.
The final is scheduled for March 9, and the much-anticipated group match between India and Pakistan will be played on February 23 in Dubai.
