National Stadium is the cricket stadium situated in Karachi, Pakistan. It is the largest cricket stadium in Pakistan, with the capacity of 34,228 seats. It is the home to Karachi King which is the second most expensive team in Pakistan Super League and other domestic teams of Karachi.
History
The National Stadium was established on 21 April 1955 and the inaugural match was played at between Pakistan and India on 21–24 April 1955, which ended up in a draw.
The first ODI at the stadium was played between West Indies and Pakistan on 21 November 1980. West Indies won that match by four wickets.
The stadium was renovated in 2017 after Pakistan Cricket Board announced the final of PSL 3 to be held at the stadium. For this purpose, PCB allocated Rs 1.5 billion for renovation of the stadium which includes rehabilitation of rooftops, 120 new public toilets, as well as renovations of media gallery, VIP box, Commentary box, and stadium.
Major Matches
The Pakistani cricket team have a remarkable Test record at the ground, having only lost twice and have won 21 times in 40 Tests and in over 50 years.
Pakistan’s Younis Khan has scored a triple century on this ground playing against Sri Lanka in 2009. The highest ODI score on the ground is 356 runs, scored by India against Hong Kong in Asia Cup Match in 2008.
The final of the third edition of the PSL was hosted on this stadium, marking the return of international cricket in Pakistan.
Other memorable moments happened in the stadium are such as Viv Richards 181 against Sri Lanka at the 1987 Cricket World Cup and Mohammad Yousuf's record ninth century of the year 2006 to break Viv Richards record of most runs in a calendar year.
Recent Matches
Last test match played in the stadium was way back in 2009 between Pakistan and Sri Lanka. In this match Younis Khan scored his first triple century. The last ODI was also played in 2009 by the same two teams.
Controversies
Since the terrorist attack on the Sri Lanka team in Lahore in 2009, all the non-Asian sides have refused to play in the country, leading to no international matches in the whole country.
