A view of logo BCCI logo. (Photo by Aniruddha Chowhdury/Mint via Getty Images)
The upcoming 50-over World Cup will be exclusively held in India for the first time. The showpiece event will be played across 10 venues around the country. Delhi, Dharamsala, Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, and Lucknow will be hosting the games during the World Cup. The Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad will be hosting the opening game between defending champions England and New Zealand on October 5. The summit clash of the 10-team tournament will also be held at the Narendra Modi Stadium on November 19.
India is a cricket-crazy country and has more official cricket stadiums than any other nation in the world. Therefore, a number of venues have missed out on hosting World Cup matches. To compensate for the same, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is planning to give those venues out-of-turn opportunities to host ODI matches during India’s home season. As per reports, BCCI secretary Jay Shah suggested the idea that the venues hosting World Cup games will let go off their rights to host ODI matches in India’s home season.
In a letter to the state units, Shah informed them that his proposal has been unanimously accepted by officials of the ten World Cup venues.
“During our meeting, I had proposed a solution to ensure a fair distribution of matches for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023. I requested the hosting associations, with the exception of Assam and Kerala, who were allocated warm-up matches, to voluntary forego their turn to host an ODI during the bilateral international season. This proposal was put forth in order to accommodate the state associations that unfortunately missed out on hosting matches of the Cricket World Cup.
“I am pleased to inform you that the proposal received unanimous agreement and support from all the participating associations,” Shah said in the letter as per NDTV Sports.
Guwahati and Thiruvananthapuram will be hosting warm-up games in the World Cup and they will retain the rights to host matches during India’s home season.
India begins World Cup journey in Chennai
India’s opening encounter in the 2023 ODI World Cup is going to be a tough one. They are going to lock horns with five-time champions Australia in Chennai on October 8. India’s last meeting with Australia in the ODI World Cup came in the 2019 edition of the mega event. Virat Kohli’s men emerged victorious by 36 runs after setting a target of 353.