Guwahati, Aug. 6: The Assam Cricket Association (ACA) will take a loan from a government bank to prepare its stadium at Barsapara here to organise a T20 international between India and Australia to be held on October 10.

The ACA's governing body, in its meeting held here yesterday, resolved to "leave no stone unturned" to successfully host the match and carve out a niche for itself in terms of infrastructure in the international cricket arena in the first opportunity. The meeting also decided to move the state government for financial and logistic help to host the match.

The ACA has been left to borrow and beg from the government as all its funds have been exhausted in building the Rs 260-crore stadium since 2006. It has also been the worst-affected state cricket body as the release of funds by the BCCI has been stalled by the Supreme Court for past two years. The cricket body could not host the state-level inter-district tournaments last year.

Yesterday's meeting resolved to hold the tournaments in September with the help of its affiliated district units.

ACA vice-president and spokesman Devajit Saikia said: "The meeting adopted a resolution to express gratitude to the BCCI for awarding a T20 international between India and Australia in the new stadium and decided to leave no stone unturned to make it a grand success. We will seek some help from the state government and borrow a loan from Apex Bank to complete the necessary preparation for the match. We have also moved the BCCI for funds for completion of the stadium before the match."

"The acting secretary of the International Cricket Council-deputed BCCI delegation, Amitabh Choudhary, and BCCI technical official M.V. Sridhar had suggested 25 changes to be made in the stadium to make it fit for international matches. The changes should be made at the earliest," Saikia added.

Sources said the preparation will need an estimated amount of about Rs 16 crore, of which, the ACA has proposed to seek Rs 10 crore from the state government, and borrow Rs 6 crore from the bank.

A section of ACA insiders have expressed apprehensions over taking financial help from the state government as it would bring the association under the purview of the Right to Information Act.

The ACA had never availed of any financial assistance from the state ever in the past since the RTI Act was implemented.

Though the state government had promised Rs 1 crore annual grant for the construction of the stadium since then chief minister Tarun Gogoi laid the foundation of the stadium in 2006, not a single penny has been released so far, an ACA source said.

Saikia said the cricket body was expecting to host three home matches of Rajasthan Royals here during the Indian Premier League next year.

"A delegation of Rajasthan Royals officials had visited the stadium on July 24 and has already approved of the venue. They have applied to the BCCI for necessary permission to host their matches here and we are waiting for the BCCI nod," he said.

Guwahati had earlier hosted 13 one-day internationals at multipurpose Nehru Stadium and this is the first time an international match will be held at the new stadium at Barsapara.

Not only will the stadium need some refurbish, the narrow approach road to the stadium and lack of parking facility will also be major concerns for the police.