ICC has to deal with Eden Gardens non-readiness: BCCI
The World Cup is following the organizational chaos witnessed before and during the Commonwealth Games staged in New http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Delhi-c780 last October. The iconic Eden Gardens at Kolkata is set to bear the brunt of the lag in construction work.
The massive stadium with a capacity of 100,000 spectators has been ruled out as a venue for the match between http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 and England on 27th February.
A day after the decision by the ICC, the Indian Cricket Board has washed its hands off the controversy claiming the governing body of the game and the Cricket Association of Bengal have to clear the mess as the BCCI is not dealing
with the venues for the tournament.
A top official of the most affluent and richest cricket Board in the world http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shashank-Manohar-c89791 stated that the tournament was ICC’s and they have to take the responsibility of the logistics.
"According to me this (World Cup) is an ICC event, the venues were selected by ICC. The inspection was made by ICC. The board [BCCI] was not at all involved in this."
He added that the BCCI was not aware of the situation and were only informed about the news through an e-mail; he assured the media that an alternate venue would be given in due course.
Manohar added that the BCCI was concerned with the situation and the only assurance that his organization is willing to give thousands of fans, many of whom had finalized their travel and match tickets months in advance is that the
match would take place on the same date in India.
Manohar added that the local officials of the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Bengal-c771 Cricket Association were to be blamed as they did not take any notice of the repeated pleas made by the ICC.
Meanwhile cricket fans across the city as well as those who had booked their tickets and made travel arrangements for the game are bitterly disappointed.
They feel that the city has been robbed of its major match as the rest of the three games at the venue involve minnows like http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Netherlands-c753.
"England v India is the biggest game of all the group games," said one fan, he added "It was the most popular because Eden Gardens is such an iconic venue to watch cricket. A match there is regarded as one of the sporting things to
do before you die, so it's a big shame that the game has had to be moved”.
On the other hand the tournament organizers are faced with a bitter situation in the coming day as they have to re-locate the 27th February match.
Besides the venue they would have to reallocate the tickets and move the flights and accommodation for the important tie. For the time being though the venue is yet to be decided and unless that happens not much can be done as far
as logistics of the match are concerned.
The organizers are adamant that all necessary arrangements would be made in due course as the last minute change in venues is never easy; they hope that in India such calamites are not rare and things would be changed quickly.
The alarming thing is that the Indian organizers did not learn their lessons from the nightmarish start that they had to endure at the start of the Commonwealth Games held in New Delhi last year. Many of the leading athletes pulled
out of the sporting extravaganza due to reports of security threats and organizational chaos that took the gloss away from the biggest spectacle in the country in the last three decades.
Tags: