Once a power centre of Indian cricket, Mohali to miss out all world cup action

There is a touch of melancholy, for an era gone by when Punjab Cricket Association and Mohali cricket stadium were the toast of Indian cricket when it came to hosting matches. Not anymore. The once power centre of Indian cricket, Mohali, is not even hosting a single world cup match later this year, or even a side game for that matter. It is a glaring missing point in the Cricket World Cup 2023 schedule released by the International Cricket Council and BCCI in Mumbai this week.

While Punjab is missing out on the itinerary, Dharamsala further up north has gained as it gets ready to host world cup matches for the very first time. It will host five matches from October 7 to 29, including a heavy-duty India vs New Zealand match on October 22. Another "gainer” is Lucknow which will also host five world cup matches, including an India-England match. Not just Mohali and Indore, Thiruvananthapuram too missed out on hosting WC matches.

Punjab’s sports minister Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer publicly condemned Mohali being excluded as a host city given its rich history as a host and blamed “political reasons” for the same. Interestingly, none of the office bearers reacted to Mohali missing out on WC action. In contrast, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor lashed out at the Narendra Modi-led BJP government at the Centre for his home state missing out on the main WC matches even though Thiruvananthapuram has got four warm-up games as does Guwahati while Hyderabad gets two warm-up matches.

While the AAP minister was the most vociferous in his criticism of the schedule, it is reliably learnt that Mohali was never on the original list of BCCI for hosting matches. A lot many are giving the “excuse” of a new stadium in Punjab – in Mullanpur which is New Chandigarh area—not being ready on time. PCA had earlier felt that they would host WC matches in the new stadium but it has missed its deadline due to Covid-19. It is also reliably learnt that Mullanpur stadium is not the reason why the original Mohali stadium missed out; part of it is the politics of the day and part PCA stadium’s lack of timely upgradation.
There is no doubt that politics does play a role and as things stand today, Ahmedabad, which has recently got a brand new, largest stadium in the country was going to hold the “big ones”—it not only gets to host the India- Pakistan match to be played on October 15, but also the final match.

Pune getting matches for the first time in the world cup too has skewed things for the Indian board.

THE WEEK has learnt that Mohali was never in the original list of 10 venues shared by BCCI with the ICC. ICC has very little role to play in accepting or rejecting a venue unless it is related to serious matters like security and logistics. The venues and schedule were also shared by BCCI and ICC with broadcasters in case they have any technical objections.

With no one from Indian cricket board raising any hue and cry over Mohali missing from the itinerary, the once citadel of cricket power in the world has ended up becoming a silent spectator.

As for Kerala not getting any WC match, reportedly with most matches going to the south zone—Bengaluru and Chennai getting five matches each in the league phase—it was difficult to accommodate more venues from that zone, board officials said.