Biggest Cricket Stadium in the World: Narendra Modi Stadium

Walk into the Narendra Modi Stadium on a full house night and the scale actually disorients you: over 130,000 seats, arranged so steeply that fans near the top look down on the floodlight towers of most other grounds. No other cricket venue on the planet comes close to that number. The ground sits in Motera, on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, and it was built essentially from scratch after the old stadium on the same plot was demolished.

Key Facts About the Narendra Modi Stadium

Detail	Information
Location	Motera, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India
Official Capacity	Over 130,000
Opened (current structure)	2020
Previous Name	Sardar Patel Stadium / Motera Stadium
Floodlights	Yes
Pitches	11 practice pitches
Dressing Rooms	4 (to accommodate multiple teams)

History and Renovation

Motera has hosted international cricket since the 1980s, but the ground fans see today bears no resemblance to the old one. Builders tore down the original structure and put up a new stadium in its place, finishing in February 2020. The opening drew a state visit from then-US President Donald Trump as part of the “Namaste Trump” event, cricket’s biggest new venue introduced to the world through a political spectacle rather than a match. The first Test under the new name and roof came in 2021, an India-England fixture that packed the stands and pulled global camera crews to Ahmedabad for the first time.

What Makes It Special?

Capacity aside, a few design choices set this ground apart:

• Drainage engineered to clear standing water fast, so rain delays rarely wreck a full day’s play
• Four dressing rooms, enough to host more than two teams without reshuffling logistics
• An on-site cricket academy for player development
• A clubhouse and indoor cricket hall, turning the complex into something closer to a sporting campus than a single-purpose ground

How Does It Compare to Other Large Stadiums?

Nothing else in cricket sits in the same bracket. The Melbourne Cricket Ground, the sport’s most storied venue outside England, seats around 100,000 for cricket (a huge number in its own right, and still roughly 30,000 short of Ahmedabad). Eden Gardens in Kolkata, arguably India’s most historic ground, holds just over 60,000 now, down from a considerably larger capacity before safety renovations trimmed the stands.

Atmosphere and Significance

Ahmedabad has never been cricket’s emotional capital in India; that status belongs to Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai. Yet within a few years of reopening, the Modi Stadium became one of the sport’s must-play venues, largely because of what a sold-out crowd of 130,000 sounds and feels like from the middle. It hosted several matches of the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup, including the final, cementing its place as the biggest stage in a sport that already has no shortage of big stages.