LUCKNOW, Aug. 23 -- With yet another edition of the UPTwenty20 League amid much fanfare and presence of all star cricketers of Uttar Pradesh and Railways, the Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association (UPCA) has set a new milestone for the development of cricket and its players. In this year's cash-rich Indian Premier League, UPTwenty20 League helped over a dozen cricketers from the state to win good offers from 10 different franchises and they also fared well. Zeeshan Ansari and Vipraj Nigam were among the top performers for different teams in their debut season. This isn't all as UPCA under the direction of its former secretary and current BCCI vice president Rajeev Shukla went on having its maiden international cricket stadium in the parliamentary constitution of PM Narendra Modi at Varanasi. The stadium is set to become functional by the end of this year and if all goes well, it will have a chance to hold matches of the 2026 World Cup in February-March. "I am happy that after a long struggle, we are going to have our own stadium in Varanasi, and it will reflect the growth of cricket in Uttar Pradesh. We were happy to take this step of an international stadium, when we were offered free land by the state government in Varanasi," Rajeev Shukla, a life member of UPCA, said on Friday on the margins of the ongoing UPTwenty20 League. In fact, the state government offered a big piece of land worth Rs 150 crore and the UPCA is spending almost Rs 350 crore on its construction. The ownership of the stadium will be of the UPCA and it will have some common understanding about free tickets etc with the state government during the international matches. "The UPCA will be happy to host World Cup matches at Varanasi, but much will depend on the clearance from the International Cricket Council as readiness of the stadium on time will matter a lot," said Shukla, adding, "We, the UPCA are committed to the development of cricket and cricketers in the state." He also expressed happiness that UPCA's consistent support to the cricket has helped many cricketers from the state to play for India in the last 25 years or so after Gopal Sharma, there was hardly any one in the Team India for a long time. "It all happened because of the consistent development plans of the UPCA," Shukla said. In fact, a big change in UP cricket came in 2017 when Lucknow got the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium, which soon got Test status also during a Test match between Afghanistan and West Indies. Since then, the venue has hosted many international matches, including five matches of the 50-over Cricket World Cup. The stadium is owned by Ekana Sportz City with its managing director Udai Sinha establishing many other sporting facilities of class, including tennis, football, table tennis etc. The establishment of Ekana stadium brought a big change in the cricket scenario of the state as Kanpur's Green Park Stadium was already facing the hardships of not having an international airport and big hotels with adequate facilities. For sure, one of the oldest centres on the rolls of the BCCI, Green Park Stadium has now been struggling with its old infrastructure and even then concerted efforts are being made to save its historical relevance as it recently held a Test match between India and Bangladesh is and now gearing up to hold three one-day matches between the A teams of India and Australia....