Vice-President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Rajeev Shukla has said that the request made by the Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) for making a change in the upcoming 2023 Men’s ODI World Cup is unlikely to happen, citing the difficulty in making changes to it.
Notably, the HCA, which has the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Uppal as its home ground, made a request to the Indian board for a change in the 2023 Men’s ODI World Cup schedule after the local police raised concerns over hosting back-to-back games, including the marquee clash between former champions Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
“I am in charge of Hyderabad venue for WC. If there will be any issue or anything, will try to get it resolved. It is not easy to change the World Cup schedule and it’s unlikely to happen. Only BCCI can’t change schedule, teams, ICC, all involved,” said Shukla on the sidelines of the UPT20 League launch.
As of now, the HCA Hyderabad Cricket is slated to host just three of the total 45 matches with the Pakistan-Sri Lanka game scheduled for October 12. HCA is also scheduled to host the New Zealand versus the Netherlands match on October 9 followed by the Pakistan-Sri Lanka affair on the very next day.
However, with the Indian board reworking fixtures for nine matches to accommodate clashes with other schedules to avoid security hassles, the Pakistan-Sri Lanka match was moved ahead to October 10 from its original date of October 12. This concern comes five days before the first phase of 2023 Men’s ODI World Cup tickets go on sale from August 25.
The Hyderabad Police has informed HCA that organising back-to-back matches may result in them failing to provide adequate security to the Pakistan team; it will also require posting a sufficient number of troops at the stadium and the team hotel.
Apparently, as per multiple reports, the HCA was not consulted before the Pakistan-Sri Lanka match was moved ahead. It is now to be seen how BCCI will respond to this request as it has already faced severe criticism from foreign media over the first change of schedule.