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The Greater Noida Sports Complex Ground, also known as Shaheed Vijay Singh Pathik Sports Complex, was established in 2013 with an 8,000-spectator capacity. However, when the venue was announced in 2009, it was supposed to be completed by 2011 with a 40,000 seating capacity and host ODI and Test matches.
The Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority (GNIDA) built the stadium and has managed it since. In 2014/15, Vinoo Mankad Trophy games (U-19 white-ball games) were played here, and they included Rinku Singh and Khaleel Ahmed.
Kanpur’s Green Park Stadium was the only international venue in Uttar Pradesh at that point.
December 2015
The venue hosted its first fixture affiliated with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). The home side, Uttar Pradesh, played against Baroda in a 2015/16 Ranji Trophy clash. The match included numerous Indian stars — Hardik Pandya, Ambati Rayudu, Yusuf Pathan, Irfan Pathan, Munaf Patel (Baroda), Suresh Raina, Kuldeep Yadav, Praveen Kumar and Piyush Chawla (UP). The game ended in a tame draw with UP taking three points based on their first innings lead.
December 2015
A week later, the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) and the BCCI signed an MoU with GNIDA to use the venue as Afghanistan’s home ground.
August/September 2016
The BCCI continued hosting domestic cricket at the venue, organising the entirety of the 2016 Duleep Trophy. Four day-night first-class fixtures were played between India Blue, India Red and India Green with the Blue side lifting the trophy. The likes of Rohit Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Ravindra Jadeja featured in the final.
It was the first time BCCI trialled the pink ball in the country, which brought Greater Noida into the limelight.
December 2016
The International Cricket Council (ICC) approved the stadium for the staging of international matches between full members. The ICC team, led by match referee Jeff Crowe, inspected the pitch and other facilities, including the floodlights, dressing rooms, and sitting areas, before granting their approval.
March 2017
Afghanistan hosted Ireland for three T20Is and five ODIs at the Greater Noida stadium. Afghanistan played two ICC Intercontinental Cup matches against Namibia and Ireland the following month. These were two four-day red-ball fixtures, both of which Afghanistan won by an innings.
September 2017
In the first setback for the stadium, BCCI blacklisted the venue for hosting an unsanctioned private competition (North India Champions League) which also had match-fixing allegations. No BCCI-affiliated match has been played here since.
However, in 2019, Delhi & District Cricket Association staged a Cooch Behar Trophy game between Delhi U19 and Haryana U19. Afghanistan also played three T20Is versus Ireland in 2020.
2024, Afghanistan vs New Zealand Test
Afghanistan announced a one-off Test versus New Zealand in Greater Noida. It was supposed to be Afghanistan’s 10th Test match and for New Zealand, a precursor to their two-match Test series in Sri Lanka followed by three Tests in India.
Both teams are scheduled for their next international assignments on September 18 (Afghanistan: three ODIs vs South Africa, New Zealand: two Tests in Sri Lanka), leaving September 9 to 13 as the only window despite rain forecast throughout the week.
Day 1
Play on Day 1 of the one-off Test between Afghanistan and New Zealand was abandoned despite bright sunshine during the daytime. The overnight rain had left damp patches in the 30-yard circle. Six inspections and relentless efforts by the ground staff went in vain, and play was called off around 4 PM. The crowd, which had built a queue an hour before the scheduled start of play, stayed at the venue until the final inspection.
The off-field facilities also came under scrutiny. The provisions for both fans and media were underwhelming. ACB and GNIDA were involved in playing the blame game, with an ACB official reportedly vowing not to return to the venue again.
Day 2
The sorry story repeated as another day’s play was abandoned despite no rain during the day. The ground staff tried to alleviate the wet patches in the mid-wicket region by cutting dry grass from the practice facilities, but to no avail. The overnight rain had its say, as play was called off at 3 PM.
The Afghanistan team didn’t arrive at the venue, while the Kiwi side practised on the side pitches to gear up for the Sri Lanka tour.
ACB changed its stance regarding the ground conditions. Menhajuddin Naz, ACB's international cricket manager, absolved BCCI from any allegations surfacing on social media about handing Afghanistan an underprepared ground.
“The BCCI offered us three venues - this one, Kanpur and Bengaluru, but we chose Greater Noida as it was most convenient in terms of logistics. It was closer to Delhi and also connectivity from Kabul was better. This has always been our home venue. We have hosted teams like Zimbabwe and Ireland here since 2016.” he said after play was abandoned on Day 2.
"We had a three-day game here with one of the local teams and faced no issues but the rain is something which is uncontrollable.
"The issue cropped up due to heavy rains for the last few days. Also, it rained heavily last evening and it wasn’t looking good at all,” Naz further clarified.
Day 3
Unlike the first two days, Day 3 was affected by incessant rain early in the morning, forcing the umpires to abandon play at 9.15 AM. The ground staff, learning from their past mistakes, covered the whole square, but it wasn’t enough to prevent the rest of the field from being soaked in some capacity.
Day 4
The weather kept getting worse as it rained throughout Day 4 and umpires called off the play at 9 in the morning.
The ground staff was also unable to work due to continuous rainfall. Speaking to Cricket.com, a groundsman said on condition of anonymity, “We are not allowed to say much. But the ground is absolutely fine. We cannot control the rain and cannot work on the field until the rain and wind stop.”
Day 5
More overnight rain nullified any chance of play on Day 5. The match referee Javagal Srinath called off the play even before 9 AM.
In the press conference, both coaches expressed their disappointment at the situation.
“We were very excited to put ourselves against the challenge of playing New Zealand. We had been here and had warm-up games and got ourselves accustomed to the conditions and the weather,” said the Afghanistan coach, Jonathan Trott.
“It was frustrating for us. It was a game we were very excited about,” said Gary Stead, the Kiwi coach.
Were other venues an option?
Reportedly, ACB asked for Dehradun and Lucknow as potential venues for this Test. However, both venues are hosting their state T20 leagues. Meanwhile, the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi, nearly 40 km away from Greater Noida, had finished staging the maiden season of the Delhi Premier League (DPL) a day before the Test match was scheduled to begin.
Akbar Muhammad, ACB’s commercial head, said after Day 2, “We tried working on a solution to shift the game. We reached out to a few nearby venues and they all said that because of the same rain, they will not be able to prepare the venue in 24 hours."
Thus, the occupancy of other venues, Afghanistan’s logistical preference, the forecast and future scheduling of both the teams left this one-off Test caught between a rock and a hard place.
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