A cricket ground to host international matches will soon come up in Kabul,  as Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Monday approved a two-acre land for the ground in the capital, TOLOnews reported. The stadium will have a capacity to accommodate around 25,000 people.

“The land which has been approved by President Ghani is in the Alokhail area (in Kabul) and Afghanistan’s cricket board has plans to build a stadium here and bring the international players to this stadium in the future,” Farid Hotek, the spokesperson of the Afghan Cricket Board (ACB), was quoted as saying by TOLOnews.

The new stadium will have a five-star guest house, a standard swimming pool, indoor and outdoor academies, canopies for visitors, health clinic, a mosque among many other facilities, informed an official from the ACB.

Afghanistan became a full member of the International Cricket Council (ICC) in 2017, since then the country has been hosting its international matches in India, mostly in Greater Noida and Dehradun grounds which have been playing to the Afghan cricket team.  Afghan players like Rashid Khan, Mohammad Nabi and Mujeeb Ur Rahman have become internationally recognised names. 

Afghan officials are now hoping to host matches in their own country. But the prevailing security condition in the country, especially in Kabul, is likely to play spoiler in this ambition unless the Afghan government and the Taliban succeed in finding a political solution out of the ongoing Doha peace process.