Visakha International Cricket Stadium

The Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium is the principal cricket stadium in Hyderabad, Telangana, India and is the home ground of the Hyderabad Cricket Association.It is located in Uppal, an eastern suburb of the city. It has a capacity of 60,000 and extends across 16acre of land. The ends are named Pavilion End and North End. On the retirement of VVS Laxman, the HCA decided to honour the state hero by naming the North End after him. Being one of the best grounds, this stadium never hosted an ICC event. As of 19 Aug, 2017 it has hosted 4 Tests and 5 ODIs. This stadium hosted the opener and final of 2017 Indian Premier League.HistoryHCA's previous home ground was the Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium in the Fateh Maidan sports complex at Basheerbagh in central Hyderabad. The ground belonged to the Sports Authority of Telangana State and HCA had limited operating autonomy over this ground.Moreover, due to its smaller size, it soon came to be known as a high-scoring ground and so Hyderabad was not considered for many high-profile cricket matches in India.In 2003, the proposal for a new stadium was submitted by HCA to the government of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh, then headed by N. Chandrababu Naidu. The proposal was quickly cleared and HCA was allocated a budget for the same. The government also identified a large piece of land suitable for the project at Uppal.