Sir Vivian Richards Stadium is a stadium in North Sound, Antigua, Antigua and Barbuda. It was built for use in the 2007 Cricket World Cup where it hosted Super 8 matches. The stadium usually caters for 10,000 people, but temporary seating doubled its capacity for the 2007 Cricket World Cup. The stadium is named after former West Indies cricket team captain Viv Richards.
The stadium is about 10–20 minutes drive from the capital city, St. John's, and the country's international airport, (VC Bird International Airport). The venue cost approximately US$60 million to build, with the majority of the funds coming from a Chinese Government grant. The first Test match staged on the ground was on 30 May 2008 when the West Indies hosted Australia, with the match ending in a draw.
The stadium constitutes two main stands; the Northern Stand and the five story South stand. In 2008, the roof of the South Stand was damaged by high winds. Other facilities include a practice pitch for the various cricket teams, a new beach (possibly a combination of unexploited coastal sand cove supported by artificial work) dubbed "Beach 366" (the island has a total of 365 natural beaches some of which were damaged during several passages of severe hurricanes in 1995, 1998 and 2000), training infrastructure and a media centre. Sir Viv Richards Stadium is one of the few state-of-the-art venues that encompass underground passageways for the cricket teams to move about.
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