PCA Dejected as Mohali Misses Out on WC Hosting, Punjab Sports Minister Says 'Politics Involved'

The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Tuesday announced the fixture for the upcoming 50-over World Cup with 100 days to go for the marquee event. The tournament begins with the finalists of the last edition – England and New Zealand – locking horns at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on October 5. Mumbai and Kolkata are set to host the semifinals on November 15 and 16 respectively while the grand finale will be played in Ahmedabad on November 19.

As many as 10 venues have been finalised for the mega ICC event. The chosen cities include Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Dharamsala, Delhi, Chennai, Lucknow, Pune, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Kolkata. However, some of the established cricket centres, like Mohali, Indore, Rajkot, Ranchi and Nagpur, have missed out.

The metro cities usually get to host the World Cup games and apart from that, the matches are allocated zone wise and, in some cases, personal preferences come into play.

Even the IS Bindra Stadium in Mohali, which hosted the 2011 World Cup semi-final between India and Pakistan didn’t get a game this time.

“It seems only metros and cities where the office bearers are from have got games. We pushed for it really hard but could not get a game. Disappointing not to get even a practice game,” said a source in the Punjab Cricket Association which has been hosting World Cup games since 1996.

Punjab Sports Minister Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer claimed that leaving out Mohali from the World Cup venues was very a much political decision.

“It is good that World Cup is coming to India but it is sad that a stadium which has produced many superstars of Indian cricket, a stadium that used to be among the top five venues in the country, has not got a single game.

“On the other hand, the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad is hosting the opening game as well as the final and also the big game between India and Pakistan.

“To the neighbouring Dharamsala as well you are giving them five games but Punjab has not got even one. That makes it clear that politics is being played,” he said.

Indore’s Holkar Stadium is a renowned venue for international games and has recently hosted the first Test match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. However, it has missed out on a World Cup fixture which left Abhilash Khandekar, president of the Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association, disappointed.

“Indore hosted a World Cup game between Australia and New Zealand back in 1987. We feel bad that Indore has been left out. I don’t know the compulsions of the BCCI. Indore has a rich cricketing history and therefore we expected it to be a venue of the World Cup,” Khandekar told PTI.

In the 2019 ODI World Cup, 11 venues were used though teams did not need to take flights as it was being held in England. In the 2015 edition held in the much bigger Australia, as many as 14 venues were used to stage 49 games.

The T20 showpiece, on the other hand, is wrapped up within a month as it was the case with the 2022 edition in Australia.

(With PTI Inputs)