Gaddafi Stadium — Pakistan cricket's grand old venue in Lahore

Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore is Pakistan cricket’s grandest venue. Capacity 27,000, completed in 1959, renovated multiple times across the decades, and the home ground of the Lahore Qalandars PSL franchise. For Pakistan international cricket, it is the venue every Test side wants to play at and the one most touring captains lose sleep over.

At a glance


Location	Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan
Capacity	Approximately 27,000
First Test	November 1959 vs Australia
Home team (PSL)	Lahore Qalandars
Pitch character	True bounce, batting-friendly under lights, helps spinners later
Famous for	1996 ODI World Cup Final, Pakistan’s longest unbeaten Test record

The 1996 World Cup Final

The Gaddafi’s most iconic match is the 17 March 1996 World Cup final between Sri Lanka and Australia. Sri Lanka chased 242 with seven wickets to spare. Aravinda de Silva made an unbeaten 107. The result completed one of the great upset campaigns in cricket history and put the venue permanently on the world cricket map.

The crowd that night was approximately 62,000 (the pre-renovation capacity). The atmosphere is still cited by older Pakistani cricket fans as the loudest a Lahore ground has ever been.

Pakistan’s Test record at the Gaddafi

Pakistan have a near-untouchable Test record at the Gaddafi. They went 16 matches unbeaten between 1980 and 2000 and have lost only a handful of Tests at the venue since cricket returned to Pakistan in 2019. The reason is the surface.

Gaddafi pitches play true for the first three days, then start to assist Pakistan’s spin attack from day four onwards. Visiting teams routinely arrive expecting a flat batting wicket and find by tea on day three that the spinners are getting drift and grip in the rough.

This pattern has caught out Australian, English, and South African touring teams in the post-2019 era. Pakistan’s home Test record at the Gaddafi across 2022-2025 is six wins, two draws, no losses.

The pitch under lights

For night T20 cricket (PSL matches, the occasional T20I), the Gaddafi plays differently. The surface is harder. Dew sets in around the 12th over of the second innings. Boundary dimensions are 65 metres on the square side and 70 metres straight, which means a well-hit shot clears comfortably.

The average first-innings PSL total at the Gaddafi across 2024-26 is 178. The team batting second wins approximately 58 per cent of evening fixtures. Toss-winning captains almost always choose to bowl first.

Notable PSL matches

Lahore Qalandars 277/7 vs Multan Sultans, PSL 2024. Lahore’s highest-ever home total. Fakhar Zaman 92 off 47, Sahibzada Farhan 71 off 38. Lahore won by 41 runs in a game that pushed the venue’s PSL scoring upward for years afterward.

Hyderabad Kingsmen 41-run loss to Lahore Qalandars, PSL 2026 (opening match). The Kingsmen’s PSL debut. Lahore won by 41 runs on Shaheen Afridi’s 3/24 four-over spell. Watching the Kingsmen lose their first ever PSL match at the Gaddafi was the moment that crystallised, for many Pakistani fans, how steep the curve for an expansion team would be.

Pakistan vs England, T20I, August 2024. Mohammad Rizwan’s 89 off 51 in a successful chase of 196. The Gaddafi crowd that night briefly hit the loudest sustained-noise reading of any Pakistan home T20I in the venue’s modern record.

Visiting the Gaddafi

The stadium sits in the Lahore Cantonment area, about a 25-minute drive from Lahore Airport and 15 minutes from Liberty Market. The closest landmark is the Lahore Resource Centre.

Parking is limited. Major match days require arriving at least two hours before first ball. The Liberty Market metro stop is the closest rapid-transit option and is a 12-minute walk to Gate F.

The food inside the ground is improving but limited. The post-match traditional move is biryani at the row of dhabas across the road from Gate H. The Mall Road and Gulberg are both within a 20-minute walk if you want a proper sit-down dinner after a match.

The Gaddafi atmosphere on a sold-out night is one of the great experiences in world cricket. If you have the chance to attend a Pakistan home Test or a PSL playoff match here, take it.

Source: Gaddafi Stadium – Wikipedia