BCCI says no to HCA request, World Cup schedule remains unaltered

The HCA had appealed to the BCCI for a change in schedule after the local police authorities expressed their reservations about deploying adequate personnel on back-to-back match days.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Monday told the Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) it would have to host back-to-back games in the upcoming ICC World Cup as there was no scope for further changes.

The HCA had appealed to the BCCI for a change in schedule after the local police authorities expressed their reservations about deploying adequate personnel on back-to-back match days.

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“BCCI secretary Jay Shah held a meeting with HCA officials in Delhi after the Asia Cup team selection meeting (for which the secretary is convenor) and the state unit was categorically told that no changes would be entertained after a revised schedule was issued on August 9,” a BCCI source informed.

The BCCI vice-president Rajeev Shukla had already indicated on Sunday that “changes (to the schedule) were unlikely.”

The World Cup schedule, which was first released on 27 June in Mumbai amidst fanfare, went through a lot of changes with dates and timings of as many as nine games, including the marquee India vs Pakistan clash.

The Indo-Pak match was originally scheduled for 15 October, but the game was advanced by a day because it was slotted on the first day of Navratra.

This particular change in schedule led to Pakistan’s game against Sri Lanka in Hyderabad being advanced by a day from 11 to 10 October. Hyderabad was also hosting Netherlands’ game against New Zealand on 9 October.

Hence, the local police officials had asked for at least a day’s gap between the two games.

However, that would have meant slotting the New Zealand vs Netherlands game on 8 October. It would have put a lot of stress on the teams and both the countries wouldn’t have agreed upon.

New Zealand are playing England in the opening game on 5 October in Ahmedabad and the next day they will fly to Hyderabad and would have received only one training session (on 7 October) in that case.

Netherlands open their campaign against Pakistan on 6 October in Hyderabad and advancement by a day meant that 7 October would go in recovery and next day they would be playing again.

Neither ICC nor the two boards (NZC and Netherlands authority known as KNCB) would have agreed to this request.