Home of Malaysian cricket saved from closure

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s top cricket stadium, which has hosted some of the game’s greats including Sachin Tendulkar, was saved from closure Friday after the government blocked an attempt to turf out the sport’s local governing body.

The Kinrara Oval, which was built in 2003 and has hosted one-day internationals featuring India, Australia and the West Indies, as well as Under-19 World Cup games, sits on a plot of prime land west of the capital Kuala Lumpur.

But the Malaysian Cricket Association’s lease expired in October and the property company that owns the land ordered them out of the ground to make way for a new development.

After several months in limbo, the ground’s future is now assured after the cabinet agreed it should continue operating as a cricket stadium following talks with parties involved in the dispute, said Sports Minister Syed Saddiq.

“The Malaysian government is committed to saving this... cricket ground,” he said on Twitter. “Cabinet decided that saving the cricket ground is more important than commercial development.”