The historic MA Chidambaram Stadium, home to scores of Twenty20 fans thanks to the following that Chennai Super Kings (CSK) have enjoyed the last eight years, may not host any of the India matches when the ICC World Twenty20 is hosted in the country between March 11 and April 3 next year.
There’s no official reason been given yet over why Chennai could lose out on an India match but it is very likely that ‘Chepauk’ may be compensated with two World T20 matches not involving any India. Apart from India matches, Chennai will also not host any of the matches involving Sri Lanka, given the political scenario in the state and the Tamil-Sinhala conflict.
Anurag Thakur, the BCCI secretary, admitted that there were problems with the stadium in Chennai because of which the listing of World T20 venues had to be kept pending. “We have not ruled out Chennai (as a venue). The only issue is which matches can be played in Chennai. There are certain limitations –Youcan’t play Sri Lanka there, three stands are not complete and you can’t keep Indian fans away from those stands,” said the BCCI secretary.
Thakur, however, did not go into the specifics of whether Chennai would get to host the Indian team.
The BCCI has not kept any venues on standby for the tournament as all eight centres originally listed during the International Cricket Council (ICC) meeting in Barbados are being included in the itinerary. Delhi, a major venue that is currently in a messy state of affairs over tax-related issues with the state government, could also miss out on a World T20 game.
There is no confirmation yet over the number of venues that have been shortlisted for the tournament. “We held a detailed discussion today. There were certain centres which were given deadlines of August 25 to submit completion reports and we are still waiting for their certificates,” Thakur said.
The BCCI has gone past the deadline to finalise the tournament venues. As of now, Mumbai, Kolkata, Nagpur, Chennai, Mohali, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Pune, Rajkot, Hyderabad and Dharamsala are the venues that have been marked down as the potential venues. The Eden Gardens in Kolkata has been pencilled in to host the final of the tournament.
“There are many things to be considered before allocating matches. That’s why today’s meeting was held, to find out which are the right venues and how we can organise a successful tournament,” Thakur said, adding that the details will be sent to the ICC soon for approval after which the fixtures will be released.
Shetty named WT20 coordinator, IPL chief
Veteran Mumbai cricket administrator Ratnakar Shetty has been named the chief coordinator for the ICC World T20 to be played in India early next year. Shetty was also the ICC 2011 World Cup director, an event that was hosted in the sub-continent. Shetty, it is learnt, has also been given the added responsibility to head the Indian Premier League operations in place of Sundar Raman, who quit last month.
While Shetty’s official designation in IPL is yet to be known, it is learnt that the BCCI mandarins are convinced that he is the right man for the job, given his vast experience in Indian cricket administration. “It was a toss-up between Shetty and Amrit Mathur, who handles internal communications. Shetty has been asked to take the responsibility purely because of his experience,” a source said.
Further it is learnt that the BCCI is zeroing in on ICC official Dhiraj Malhotra to handle the tournament’s logistics and operations next year. Malhotra had been associated with the IPL during its first three years.
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