The Sharjah Cricket Stadium ( ar, ملعب الشارقة للكريكيت) is in

Sharjah Sharjah (; ar, ٱلشَّارقَة ', Gulf Arabic: ''aš-Šārja'') is the third-most populous city in the United Arab Emirates, after Dubai and Abu Dhabi, forming part of the Dubai-Sharjah-Ajman metropolitan area. Sharjah is the capital o ...

in the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...

. It holds the record for the most ODIs hosted in a venue with 240 ODIs up to December 2019. It was originally constructed in the early 1980s and has been much improved over the years.Cricinfo: Sharjah Stadium Profile
, Retrieved 23 August 2010. It hosted its first international matches in April 1984, in the

Asia Cup The Asian Cricket Council Asia Cup is a men's One Day International and Twenty20 International cricket tournament. It was established in 1983 when the Asian Cricket Council was founded as a measure to promote goodwill between Asian countries. ...

. The stadium was one of the dedicated venues for the

2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup The 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup was the seventh ICC Men's T20 World Cup tournament, with the matches played in the United Arab Emirates and Oman from 17 October to 14 November 2021. The West Indies were the defending champions, but were eventua ...

. In 2010, at the behest of local cricketing patron Abdul Rahman Bukhatir, the Sharjah Cricket Stadium became the home ground for the

Afghanistan cricket team The Afghanistan men's national team ( ps, د افغانستان کرکټ ملي لوب‌‌‌‌‌‌ډله, fa, تیم ملی کریکت افغانستان) represents Afghanistan in international cricket. Cricket has been played in Afgha ...

for

One Day International A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, currently 50, with the game lasting up to 9 hours. The Cricket World C ...

and first-class matches.Cricinfo: Sharjah named Afghanistan's new home ground
, Retrieved 23 August 2010. In 2016, Afghanistan changed their home ground to Greater Noida Sports Complex Ground in

Noida Noida, short for New Okhla Industrial Development Authority, is a planned city located in Gautam Buddha Nagar district of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Noida is a satellite city of Delhi and is a part of the National Capital Region (NCR) o ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. The

Multan Sultans Multan Sultans (Urdu: ) is a Pakistani professional Twenty20 franchise cricket team representing the city of Multan in southern Pakistan in the Pakistan Super League (PSL). The team was founded in 2017 as an additional sixth team added to the P ...

and the

Quetta Gladiators Quetta Gladiators (Urdu, Balochi: ; Pashto: کویټه ګلیډیټرز) is a Pakistani professional Twenty20 cricket franchise that competes in the Pakistan Super League (PSL). They play most home games at the 27,000-capacity Gaddafi Stadium ...

used the Sharjah Cricket Stadium for most of their home games in the most recent PSL season. The cricket stadium also hosted the inaugural edition of the T10 cricket league, which is a 90-minute cricket league from 14 to 17 December 2017 featuring several international cricket players. The stadium also hosted the final of the 2018 Blind Cricket World Cup featuring

and

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

with India defeating Pakistan by 2 wickets to secure the Blind Cricket World Cup title. It has 62 metre boundaries in long on and 58 metre in straight. It has 65 metre boundary in mid wicket.

Test matches

Sharjah cricket stadium is one of the few Test Cricket Grounds at which a

Test match Test match in some sports refers to a sporting contest between national representative teams and may refer to: * Test cricket * Test match (indoor cricket) * Test match (rugby union) * Test match (rugby league) * Test match (association football) ...

has been played not involving a home country participant (and the only one in a non-Test playing country) Sharjah was the venue for four Test matches in 2002. Because of security and safety concerns in Pakistan and its aftermath) the ground was chosen as a neutral venue to host two Test matches between

and the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

in February and two Test matches between Pakistan and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

in October. The fifth Test match held at the ground took place in November 2011, as the third Test between Sri Lanka and Pakistan. The other games in the series were played at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi and Dubai International Cricket Stadium.

One Day Internationals

Between 1984 and 2003, the Sharjah ground was the venue for 206

s held as part of commercially sponsored one day tournaments involving three or four international teams. Sharjah was a popular venue attracting good crowds mostly from the South Asian population of the

. The tournaments were organised by "The Cricketers Benefit Fund Series (CBFS)" which had been established in 1981 by Abdul Rahman Bukhatir, and whose main aim was to honour cricketers of the past and present generations from India and Pakistan, with benefit purses in recognition of their services to the game of cricket. The stadium initially started with a few limited seats and very modest facilities but by 2002 had a 17,000 capacity and floodlights. Since 2003 the increasingly crowded cricket calendar has precluded the holding of any major international matches at Sharjah although the stadium has been the venue for certain other matches, for example in the

2004 ICC Intercontinental Cup The 2004 ICC Intercontinental Cup was the inaugural edition of the ICC Intercontinental Cup first class cricket tournament, an international cricket tournament between nations who have not been awarded Test status by the International Cricket Co ...

. It has also been used by the Afghanistan national team since 2010. In 2011, the Guinness Book of Records recorded the Sharjah stadium as hosting the greatest number of one-day matches. , 240 ODIs had been played at the ground.Sharjah stadium stats
at espncricinfo.com, March 2019

ICC Men's T20 World Cup

The venue hosted 11 group-stage matches during

Indian Premier League

The UAE has hosted matches in the

Indian Premier League The Indian Premier League (IPL), also known as TATA IPL for sponsorship reasons, is a men's T20 franchise cricket league of India. It is annually contested by ten teams based out of seven Indian cities and three Indian states. The leagu ...

, with matches being played on the ground on each occasion. The 2014 season was played in the UAE due to the

2014 Indian general election General elections were held in India in nine phases from 7 April to 12 May 2014 to elect the members of the 16th Lok Sabha. With 834 million registered voters, they were the largest-ever elections in the world until being surpassed by the 2019 ...

and parts of both the

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...

and 2021 season were played in the country due to the widespread outbreak of COVID-19 in India.

Records

T20Is

* On 24 November 2013,

Samiullah Shinwari Samiullah Shinwari ( ps, سميع الله شينواري; born 31 December 1987) is an Afghan cricketer who represents Afghanistan in international level. He is a right-handed batsman and part-time leg break bowler. He made his international ...

took a five wicket haul against

Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

. * On 25 October 2021,

Mujeeb Ur Rahman Mujeeb Ur Rahman Zadran ( ps, مجیب الرحمن ځدراڼ; born 28 March 2001) is an Afghan cricketer, who plays for the Afghanistan national cricket team. Two months after his international debut, at the age of 16 years and 325 days, he b ...

took a five wicket haul against

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. * On 6 November 2021,

Kagiso Rabada Kagiso Rabada (born 25 May 1995) is a South African international cricketer who plays all formats of the game. He is a right arm fast bowler. He made his international debut in November 2014 in limited-overs cricket before going on to make his ...

took a hat-trick against

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

in a 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup's super 12 Match.

References

{{List of cricket grounds in United Arab Emirates Sport in Sharjah (city) Cricket grounds in the United Arab Emirates Test cricket grounds in the United Arab Emirates