Afghanistan’s national cricket team has expressed disappointment with the facilities at the Shaheed Vijay Singh Pathik Stadium in Greater Noida. The venue is the team’s adopted home for the Test match against the New Zealand national cricket team.

The Test match between Afghanistan and New Zealand is scheduled to take place on September 9 (Monday). The opening day of the match was called off due to rain and wet pitch. But the hosts have been preparing quite well for the match at the stadium for the past few days.

However, they are not happy with the way things have been going at the Shaheed Vijay Singh Pathik Stadium. According to reports from Sports Tak, it is learnt that the team is not happy with the facilities at the stadium and has made a statement saying that they will not play there again.

A source close to the Afghanistan Cricket Board confirmed that the national cricket team will play in Lucknow from the next match onwards as the team is not happy with the poor management of the venue. The players are also unhappy with it. Speaking to SportsTak, he explained:

“There are no facilities. We will never come back here. Our preference will be Lucknow. There are no basic facilities. There is complete mismanagement at the place. Even the players are not happy with the good training facilities and everything else.”

The Afghanistan national cricket team will play against the New Zealand national cricket team for the first time in the longest format of the game. Overall, this will be the tenth test they will play in their career.

They have not made a huge impact in Test cricket, unlike ODIs and T20s. The Hashmatullah Shahidi-led side has won 2 of their 9 games, defeating Bangladesh and Ireland. They would want to improve their record by winning the one-off Test against New Zealand and make history. They defeated the Kiwis in the 2024 T20 World Cup and would come into the game with a lot of confidence.

India is our home: Hashmatullah Shahidi, captain of Afghanistan national cricket team

Afghanistan national cricket team captain Hashmatullah Shahidi said before the match against New Zealand that India is their home country and they want to stick to one place so that they can have a good home advantage. Speaking to reporters, he explained:

“India is our home and when we host teams, other nations have played more cricket here. We hope that we will get a good venue here in India and if we stick to one venue, it will be effective for us. Hopefully, the ACB and BCCI will get us a good venue.

“If you look at our record in the first division, it’s good because we play in our stadium. We know those conditions. Hopefully in the future there will come a time when teams travel to Afghanistan and our average will be higher,” he concluded.