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The ICC announced that the US will host the T20 World Cup in November 2021 along with the West Indies. At that time, the US did not have enough stadiums to host such a big tournament. There were only two venues in the US and the ICC was looking for a third venue, for which New York was chosen. Many T20 matches have been played at two venues, Florida and Dallas Stadium in Texas, but for the first time this match will be played in New York. It was not an easy journey for the ICC to prepare this stadium built in Eisenhower Park in Nassau County as the third venue. Despite many challenges, the ICC completed this stadium on Long Island within five months.
What were the challenges faced by ICC?
Although the ICC has completed the Nassau County Stadium in five months, its preparation started two years ago. The biggest challenge before building the stadium was to select a good location. The process began in 2022 and Don Lockerbie was selected for the job. Lockerbie, who hails from New York, is the T20 World Cup venue development officer. He had previously played this role in the 2007 ODI World Cup and has experience working in the 1994 FIFA World Cup. He shortlisted several locations and sent them to the ICC but all of them were rejected. In some places, local people objected to the project and protested. Time was running out but the location was not available.
It took 4 months to prepare the pitch
Although the ICC tasked Lockerbie with choosing two venues, given the time constraints, he suggested building a large and well-equipped stadium. The ICC agreed to his suggestion but the problem of preparing the pitch still persisted, which led to a delay in choosing the venue. Eventually, in June 2023, it was agreed to use drop-in pitches as a solution and in August 2023, the ICC signed a deal for Eisenhower Park in Nassau County on Long Island in November. Meanwhile, the ICC had started preparing pitches in Adelaide, Australia, which took about 4 months to build.
The stadium work was completed in 5 months
After the contract was signed, only 6 months were left to build a 34,000-capacity stadium on the vacant Eisenhower Park site. After this, it took another month for the work to start. The ICC started work on the site on 8 January 2024, while construction also started on 18 January. Now preparations had to be made within 5 months before the warm-up match began in the last week of May. Meanwhile, work on the stadium continued. As soon as the stadium was ready, 10 pitches were prepared from Adelaide and reached the Eisenhower Park Stadium. Of these 10 pitches, 4 were fitted for major matches, while 6 were fitted in practice fields. Thus, under the supervision of Lockerbie, the ICC worked day and night and completed this impossible task in just 5 months.