Cricket has not had an Olympic stadium built for it in 128 years, and right now there is one rising out of a Southern California fairground. That single fact says a lot about how fast the sport’s map is expanding. Here is a tour of the upcoming cricket stadiums that are genuinely reshaping where and how the game gets played.
Knight Riders Cricket Ground, Pomona, California
The most historically significant venue on this list is not in a traditional cricket market at all. The Knight Riders Cricket Ground at the Fairplex in Pomona, roughly 50 kilometers from Los Angeles, is set to host cricket’s return to the Olympic Games at LA28, the sport’s first Olympic appearance since 1900.
This is the only ground the Knight Riders Sports group, which also runs franchises in India, the Caribbean, and the UAE, has built entirely from scratch. The finished venue features eight wickets on its main square, ICC-standard playing dimensions, and six floodlight towers standing 120 feet tall, with more than 32,000 metric tonnes of earth moved during construction. It officially opened with a Major League Cricket match between the Los Angeles Knight Riders and Washington Freedom, and will host all Olympic cricket matches, both men’s and women’s T20 tournaments featuring six teams each, from July 12 to 29, 2028.
FNB Namibia Cricket Ground, Windhoek
As co-host nation for the 2027 Cricket World Cup, Namibia is stepping into World Cup hosting duties for the first time in the tournament’s history, and the FNB Namibia Cricket Ground is the centerpiece of that effort. Inaugurated in late 2025, the venue includes a high-performance training center alongside a 7,500-seat capacity, purpose-built to give Namibia a genuine international-standard home rather than relying solely on shared or borrowed facilities.
Alongside the new ground, Windhoek’s more traditional United Ground will handle several group matches involving Associate nations during the tournament, giving the Namibian capital two venues capable of hosting World Cup cricket simultaneously.
Varanasi International Cricket Stadium, India
A Venue Built Around Cultural Identity
Few new stadiums anywhere in world cricket have leaned into local identity the way Varanasi’s new ground has. The seating design is meant to evoke the flowing steps of the Ganga river, the stadium’s overall shape is designed to resemble a damru, the small hand drum associated with Lord Shiva, and the floodlight towers are styled after a trishul, or trident. It is a genuinely distinctive piece of architecture for a sport whose stadiums often look interchangeable from city to city.
Capacity and Construction Status
The venue is being built with a seating capacity of 30,000, expandable to 40,000, and will become the fifth international cricket stadium in Uttar Pradesh once complete, joining Green Park in Kanpur, Ekana in Lucknow, the Greater Noida ground, and the Saifai stadium in Etawah. Construction has faced delays past its original May 2026 target date, but the project, being delivered by Larsen and Toubro under a 30-year public-private partnership, remains one of the most anticipated new venues in Indian domestic cricket.
India’s Other Stadiums in the Pipeline
Varanasi is far from the only project underway across India. A new stadium in Jaipur is planned to become the country’s second-largest cricket ground with a capacity of around 75,000, built at a cost of roughly 4 billion rupees, and could eventually serve as a home or alternative venue for Rajasthan’s franchise cricket teams. Meanwhile, the Amingaon International Cricket Stadium near Guwahati and a new venue in Rajgir, Bihar, with a planned 45,000 capacity, are both moving through their own construction phases as India continues expanding its network of international-standard grounds beyond its traditional metro strongholds.
Why These Venues Matter Beyond Just Seating Capacity
Each of these projects tells a slightly different story about where cricket is trying to go. Pomona is about proving the sport can work as genuine Olympic entertainment in a market that barely knows the rules. The Namibia ground is about giving an Associate nation the infrastructure to match its ambition as a first-time World Cup host. Varanasi is about making a stadium feel unmistakably tied to the city around it rather than a generic bowl that could sit anywhere.
Compare it to how a city builds its first world-class airport, the structure itself matters less than what it signals about the city’s readiness to host something bigger than it has hosted before. That is exactly what these venues represent for their respective corners of the cricket world.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where will cricket be played at the 2028 LA Olympics?
All matches will be held at the Knight Riders Cricket Ground at the Fairplex in Pomona, California, from July 12 to 29, 2028.
Why is the Varanasi stadium shaped like a damru?
The design draws inspiration from Lord Shiva and the city’s spiritual identity, with the stadium shape resembling a damru drum and the floodlights styled after a trishul.
Has Namibia hosted a Cricket World Cup before?
No. The 2027 Cricket World Cup will mark the first time Namibia has served as a host nation, with the new FNB Namibia Cricket Ground built specifically for that role.
How big will the new Jaipur stadium be?
The planned Jaipur venue is expected to seat around 75,000 spectators, which would make it India’s second-largest cricket stadium.
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