Cricket World Cup: Coming up in Oct-Nov, India vs Pak at Ahmedabad’s Modi Stadium
The BCCI will be announcing the World Cup schedule at a grand launch once the Indian Premier League, currently underway, is over, it is learnt.
The Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad has emerged as the front-runner to host the high-profile India vs Pakistan match in the ICC 50-over World Cup scheduled for October-November, the first match between the two arch-rivals on Indian soil since 2016.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has decided to host the high-voltage match at the Ahmedabad stadium in anticipation of a large number of fans who are expected to travel to India from abroad for the fixture, it is learnt. With a seating capacity of 1 lakh, the Narendra Modi Stadium is the country’s largest.
The BCCI will be announcing the World Cup schedule at a grand launch once the Indian Premier League, currently underway, is over, it is learnt.
If everything goes as per schedule, the 50-over World Cup will kick off from October 5, with Nagpur, Bengaluru, Trivandrum, Mumbai, Delhi, Lucknow, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Rajkot, Indore, Bengaluru and Dharamshala being short-listed as venues, even for practice fixtures.
Of these venues, however, only seven will host India’s league matches. Ahmedabad could be the only venue where India play two matches, provided the team makes it to the final.
It is learnt that Pakistan could end up playing most of their matches in Chennai and Bengaluru due to security reasons. Kolkata’s Eden Gardens is also being considered as a venue. Similarly, Bangladesh could also play most of their matches in Kolkata and Guwahati as it would reduce the travel distance for fans from the neighbouring country.
With October-November being the monsoon season, the BCCI is planning to wrap up the matches in the country’s southern parts before the first week of November.
The Indian Express has learnt that the BCCI also consulted with the Indian team management and sought its preferences for the matches, apart from the one with Pakistan.
The Indian team, sources said, requested the BCCI to allot fixtures against Australia, England, New Zealannd and South Africa to venues that aid spinners. It told the board that it prefers slow pitches as it wants to maximise the so-called home advantage, a trend it has been following over the past few years.
“The Indian team has performed well on slow tracks in the past few years at home. So the team management had requested that whenever the schedule is being prepared the Indian team should face top teams on slow pitches. They wanted to have a home advantage,” a source in the BCCI said.
Sources said the state units have already given their wish list to the BCCI, but a call on allotment of the matches to venues would be taken only by the BCCI. But they added there’s a strong chance of Chennai’s MA Chidambaram Stadium hosting India’s match against Australia, while games against New Zealand, England, South Africa will be played in other centers where pitches will be slow.
The BCCI has earmarked more than Rs 500 crore to upgrade stadiums across the country before the 50-over World Cup. BCCI secretary Jay Shah had earlier stated that the board will be upgrading its infrastructure, with clean toilets, easy access and clean seats the top priorities after recent criticism over the condition of stadiums.
“All existing infrastructure in the country will be upgraded before the World Cup. Assessment of the stadium has been done to engage with a wider cohort of fans in the IPL and during the World Cup. So upgrading infrastructure will be done during this period,” Shah said.
