Arbab Niaz Stadium, Peshawar

Arbab Niaz Stadium is a Test and one-day cricket ground in Peshawar. The stadium is the hub of cricket in the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan. The stadium is beautifully constructed and was the first venue in Pakistan to have an electronic scoreboard. The scoreboard was provided by the Peshawar University students. The first ever international match played at this venue was scheduled to be played on November 2, 1984. The game was a one-day international between arch-rivals Pakistan and India. But unfortunately, the match was cancelled without a ball being bowled as Indian Prime minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated. Eventually, after 10 days the first ODI match at Arbab Niaz Stadium was played on November 12, 1984 between Pakistan and New Zealand which the hosts won by 46 runs. The first ever Test at this particular venue was played on September 8th, 1995. It was played between Pakistan and Sri Lanka and the former emerged victorious in that game too. The ground has capacity of 20000 and has played hosts to more than 15 ODI games and over 5 Test matches. The ground was previously known as Shahi Bagh Peshawar. The two ends at this ground are known as Pavilion End and College End. In 1985, the Arbab Niaz Stadium replaced the Peshawar Club Ground as the home ground for the Peshawar cricket team. International players like Younus Khan, Umar Gul and Shahid Afridi made starts to their domestic career at this particular venue.