Cricket and controversy seem to go hand in hand. This time the matter concerns allocation of matches for the forthcoming ICC World Cup. There will be a total of ten venues. Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Dharamsala, Delhi, Chennai, Lucknow, Pune, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Kolkata. For the warm up games, Guwahati, Thiruvananthapuram and Hyderabad will be the hosts.
But in the competition, all cities will host five matches each while Hyderabad has been given only three. Two of them will feature Pakistan and one will see New Zealand in action. What is most disappointing is that not a single match involving India has been given to Hyderabad.
Ahmedabad gets the best
Ahmedabad has been allocated the best ones. The opening match between the current champion England and strong challenger New Zealand. Next an India vs Pakistan match has also been given to Ahmedabad. Also England vs Australia, South Africa vs Afghanistan and the Final match which will decide the winner of the Cup. All the best matches have gone to Ahmedabad. We can guess that the influence of BCCI secretary Jay Shah resulted in this.
The three matches in Hyderabad are as follows: On October 6th, Pakistan will play against Qualifier 1, on October 9th New Zealand will clash with Qualifier 1 and on October 12th Pakistan will play versus Qualifier 2. The above matches may turn out to be good but why is there no match involving India? Fans and cricket officials are furious with the BCCI for ignoring Hyderabad.
Why are Hyderabad fans being punished?
Granted that Hyderabad cricket has seen a lot of infighting and disagreements with the administration but why is the BCCI punishing the Hyderabad fans by not giving them any India match? Why should they be deprived of watching their home team heroes in action?
Noel Carr’s comments
One of Hyderabad’s former players Noel Carr who has also coached top cricketers like Ambati Rayudu, Hanuma Vihari and others was the first to express his deep disappointment. “It is a big set-back for Hyderabad fans that India will not be playing in the city. The World Cup is a great spectacle and it would have been the icing on the cake if Hyderabad had been given one of India’s matches,” said Noel to Siasat.com.
“The BCCI should have done proper planning and scheduling. The whole exercise should have been planned on a priority basis. The BCCI should have taken into consideration the success of the earlier Test match, T20 match against West Indies, and the IPL matches before making this decision to rob Hyderabad of what it deserved,” he lamented.
Sesh Narayan, former office bearer of the HCA, lashed out at the BCCI. “The BCCI is giving step motherly treatment to Hyderabad. Why have they allocated two Pakistan matches to Hyderabad? Could not one of these have been a match where the Indian team could be seen? The BCCI has let us down,” thundered Sesh.
Others are unhappy too
It is not only Hyderabad officials who have expressed unhappiness at the way BCCI has handled the show. Indore and Chandigarh (Mohali) have been totally 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,” an Indore official told a national news agency.
Mohali near Chandigarh has hosted World Cup matches since 1996. “The exclusion of Mohali was due to political interference. The Punjab government will raise this issue with the BCCI,” said Punjab sports minister Gurmeet Singh Hayer to the media.
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