Mahela Jayawardene Questions The Need For An Additional Stadium After Sri Lankan Government Announced Its Plans Of Building The Largest Stadium In The Country

Mahela Jayawardene, former Sri Lankan captain, has questioned the need for an additional cricket stadium in the island nation after the Minster Bandula Gunawardena announced that they will be building the largest cricket stadium in the country with 40,000 seating capacity and Day/Night cricket facilities in Homagama.

Bandula Gunawardena, the Honorable Information Communications Technology, Higher Education, Technology, and Innovation Minister recently visited the proposed land allocated to the stadium along with Sri Lankan Cricket President Shammi Silva.

Sri Lankan Cricket President Shammi Silva had said that the proposed stadium will be the 2nd International Cricket Ground in the city of Colombo. He further added that the stadium which will be built on the 26 acres of land will be built at an estimated cost of around US 30-40 million dollars.

“We think this will cost us around USD 30 to 40 million,” Shammi Silva, Sri Lankan Cricket President was quoted as saying by newswire.ik.

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“Do we need another one”- Mahela Jayawardene

Questioning the move by the Sri Lankan government, legendary former batsman Mahela Jayawardene said that what is the need of building a new stadium when the already existing infrastructure isn’t utilized to its full capacity.

“We don’t even play enough international cricket or domestic first-class cricket in the existing stadiums we have … Do we need another one?” Mahela Jayawardene wrote on his twitter handle.

Sri Lanka currently consists of eight International stadiums in Galle, Colombo, Kandy, Hambantota, Pallekele, Moratuwa, and Dambulla.

Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan Cricket Ground is awaiting a response from the Board of Control For Cricket in India [BCCI] regarding the possibility of resuming international cricket with the Indin tour of the island nation.

Virat Kohli’s men are scheduled to tour Sri Lanka for a series of white-ball internationals which includes three ODIs and as many Twenty20 Internationals in Mid-July but the onset of the coronavirus and the subsequent lockdown means that the series may well be canceled or postponed.

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Here’s what Mahela Jayawardene tweeted:

??? We don’t even play enough international cricket or domestic first class cricket in the existing stadiums we have … Do we need another one? ?‍♂️ https://t.co/8CgmgiDyy1

— Mahela Jayawardena (@MahelaJay) May 17, 2020