India grants $1m for Kandahar cricket stadium

KABUL (Pajhwok): The Indian government has approved a grant of one million dollars for the construction of a new cricket stadium in southern Kandahar province, the cricket board said on Saturday.

The stadium will be built on land donated to the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) in 2012 in Aino Mina, a new suburb on the northern edge of Kandahar City.    

The funding was granted under the Indian Government’s Small Development Project Scheme and is the result of discussions over the past two years.

While announcing the grant, the Indian government said: “We recognise that sports, including cricket and football, have united the country and enthused the youth more than anything else.

“We hope that this new facility, and the various initiatives taken by ACB, will further popularise cricket and bring greater glory to the nation. This was a project that ACB has been closely following with us…”

ACB Chief Executive Officer Dr Noor Mohammad Murad welcomed the funding and said: “The construction of this stadium will be a major boost to the development of cricket in the southern region as well as in the whole country.”

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