Disappointed that Mohali won’t be hosting World Cup games, Punjab’s sports minister writes to the BCCI

Singh, Gurmeet In a letter to BCCI President Roger Binny, Punjab Sports Minister Meet Hayer begged him to assign his state a few World Cup games.

During the month of October, India will host nine more teams for matches in Ahmedabad, Chennai, Bengaluru, Delhi, Dharamsala, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, and Pune. Along with Thiruvananthapuram and Guwahati, Hyderabad will also host exhibition matches.

On October 5 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, the World Cup’s first game will take place between the reigning champions England and the runners-up New Zealand. The final will also be held there on November 19th.

The Punjab minister said that the locations for the championship match-up were chosen with “no sense of fair play.”

He said that Punjab has produced several cricketers for India, including Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Bishan Singh Bedi, and Mohinder Amarnath, who went on to become top players.

Rajiv Shukla, vice president of the BCCI, said in an interview that Mohali was left off the list of hosting sites because it did not fit the criteria specified by the International Cricket Committee (ICC) for hosting matches.

AAP minister Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer responded to this accusation by writing, “I (Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer) want to know what the ICC standards are based on which Mohali was ruled unsuitable for the match. Additionally, given that the India-Australia international T20 match was played in September 2022, any modifications to the current regulations should also be made public. Other than ODIs, World Cup matches have also been played in the past, including two semifinals. The ICC team’s visit to the Mohali stadium to assess the standards should also be made known.

Mohali, Punjab, was left off the list of host cities for the competition owing to political meddling, Hayer has previously said. The Punjab government will bring up this matter with BCCI.

On October 8 in Chennai, India will face Australia in the first match of their campaign.

The top four teams will advance to the semi-finals, which will take held on November 15 in Mumbai and on November 16 in Kolkata. There will be reserve days for the semifinals and championship.