Stadium is situated close to the Swami Vivekananda Airport in Naya Raipur and is 21 km away from Raipur main city.
Construction and arrangements
The construction of the stadium began in the year 2001 and it was completed in a couple of years. It was built and owned by the Government of Chhattisgarh. The stadium has been built with as a modern sports arena. The media facilities have been redone, the corporate boxes are plush, and roofs cover the rest of the ground to provide comfort from heat
Initial game hostings
The First International Standard cricket match was played between Canada national cricket team and the Chhattisgarh cricket team, the game was a One Day match, played on 21 November 2010. Stadium hosted a Half-Marathon, with the theme "Let us run" on 16 December 2012 to mark Vijay Diwas. Sunil Gavaskar had rated this stadium to as one of the best stadiums in the country and had proposed to utilize it for all types of matches. Irfan Pathan who was in awe of the facilities in the stadium noted that "When opportunities are created, and such facilities are in place, there is the hope that cricketers will emerge."
In January 2013, Board of Control for Cricket in India announced that Delhi Daredevils' Indian Premier League team shall be hosting two of their home matches in IPL - 6 at this stadium. Raipur was allotted two IPL games in January after the chief minister invited GMR, the owners of the Daredevils franchise, to host some of their home matches there. Following inspections and a few meetings, the approvals came in, and in February the state's public works department swung into action to spruce up the ground in time; they completed work on the interior in less than two months. On 28 April 2013, the first IPL match between Delhi Daredevils and Pune Warriors was played, in which Daredevils beat Warriors by 15 runs. With this it became the 19th venue to host any IPL match. The second match was played on 1 May 2013, between Delhi Daredevils and Kolkata Knight Riders. To ensure a greater success, Chhattisgarh State government had waived the entertainment tax on the tickets. Few matches of the 2014 Indian Premier League had to take place at the stadium but could not take place due to rescheduling of the matches due to general elections. In 2015 Indian Premier League, again Raipur was allotted two IPL games with Delhi Daredevils being the host team. On 9 May 2015, 1st match was played between Delhi Daredevils and Sunrisers Hyderabad, in which Sunrisers beat Daredevils by 6 runs and Moises Henriques was the Man of the Match for his 74 runs of 46 balls. The second match was played on 12 May 2015, between Delhi Daredevils and Chennai Super Kings, in which Daredevils comfortably beat Super Kings by 6 wickets with Zaheer Khan emerging as the Man of the Match due to his economical bowling. Raipur was again announced as a 2nd Home Ground for Delhi Daredevils for 2016 Indian Premier League. On 20 May 2016, 1st match was played between Delhi Daredevils and Sunrisers Hyderabad. This was the 2nd Match in which both teams played each other in this stadium again. While in 2015, Sunrisers beat Daredevils in a close game, this time again it came down to the last ball and this time it was Daredevils who won and they beat Sunrisers by 6 wickets on the very last ball of the Match due to Karun Nair's 83 runs knock for which he was chosen Man of the Match. On 22 May 2016, second match was played between Delhi Daredevils and Royal Challengers Bangalore which was also the last league game of 2016 IPL and was a must win game for both teams to qualify for playoffs which was won by Royal Challengers and they beat Daredevils by 6 wickets and Qualify for the playoffs while Delhi Daredevils got knocked out and failed to qualify.
CL T20
Stadium has also hosted eight T20 matches of the 2014 Champions League Twenty20. These consisted of two Group Stage games, plus all six Qualifier matches. The Qualifier matches were double-headers. For the first time in the history of CLT20 the qualifiers were sold out.
Praise for the stadium
Sunil Gavaskar had rated this stadium to as one of the best stadiums in the country and had proposed to utilize it for all types of matches.
Irfan Pathan who was in awe of the facilities in the stadium noted that "When opportunities are created, and such facilities are in place, there is the hope that cricketers will emerge. I hope to play again at this wonderful venue"
