The highly-anticipated World Cup cricket match between India and Pakistan to be held at Ahmedabad is likely to be rescheduled, say reports. The match was initially slated to be held on October 15.
Though there is no official confirmation from the BCCI, reports claim that the security agencies have requested the cricket body to reschedule the match as October 15 is the first day of the Hindu festival of Navaratri, celebrated as garba nights across the state.
According to the local police, they would find it challenging to arrange security on the day. The BCCI has reportedly alerted the ICC about the issue, and the final decision will come only after the meeting with all state associations slated to be held in New Delhi on July 27.
"Since October 15 coincides with the opening day of Navratri celebrations, the security agencies have advised that the big game, which will also need heavy deployment of security officials, should be rescheduled," a BCCI source told PTI.
There are speculations that the match will be preponed to October 14, which could impact the overall schedule. It could also turn into a logistical nightmare as many fans have already booked tickets and hotel rooms for the match.
India play their opening World Cup game against Australia in Chennai on October 8 while Pakistan's first two games have been scheduled in Hyderabad on October 6 and October 12. Advancing the Indo-Pak game by a day might also impact the Babar Azam-led side, which will get a day less to prepare for the high profile clash.
Meeting with state associations
The BCCI has called the state associations hosting World Cup matches for a meeting in New Delhi on Friday to take stock of the preparations. The board will also discuss the possible date change of the India-Pakistan game in the meeting. "The meeting has been called to assess the preparations for the World Cup," a state unit official told PTI.
On Wednesday, BCCI secretary Jay Shah wrote to the state associations on formation of a Working Group for the World Cup.
The five office-bearers of the BCCI, including Shah and BCCI president Roger Binny, will oversee the preparations of all the venues, including the warm-up ones in Trivandrum and Guwahati.
The office-bearers will also be part of the infrastructure and subsidy committee which will include IPL chairman Arun Dhumal, former BCCI treasurer Anirudh Chaudhry, former Apex Council member Prabhtej Bhatia and KSCA secretary A Shankar.
"We anticipate that these sub-committees will work diligently towards achieving our shared goals and objectives. Together, we can make the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 a resounding success and further elevate the standards of infrastructure and development in Indian cricket," said Shah in the letter.
The World Cup will run from October 5 to November 19 across 10 venues, including Delhi, Dharamsala, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, Lucknow, Chennai and Kolkata.
(With inputs from PTI)
