The ICC ODI World Cup 2023 is all set to start from 5 October 2023 with the teams of England and New Zealand clashing against each other in the opening match of the tournament. After the ICC announced the schedule of the tournament, some cricketing national requested changes in their fixtures and recently ICC announced the revised schedule after making 9 changes.
Soon the process of selling the tickets will start and there is no scope for any further changes in the schedule but recently, the Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) requested a change which was straightaway rejected by the BCCI.
Originally, the match between Pakistan and Sri Lanka was scheduled to be played on 10 October but now it has been shifted to 12 October which means that the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium will be hosting back to back matches as on 9 October, the match between New Zealand and Netherlands will also be played over there. HCA has made the request after a security concern has been raised by the Hyderabad police as they firmly feel that back-to-back matches are not a good idea.
An official from HCA has stated that he can’t say whether the schedule will be changed but back-to-back matches are not ideal and it will be good if the board considers it for change. He adds that anyone would want a day between two matches and they will need to discuss with the security agencies to see if it is possible or not and they are also keeping the BCCI updated so that they know what HCA is doing.
However, the request by HCA was straightaway rejected by the Vice-President of the BCCI, Rajeev Shukla as he states that he is the in-charge for the Hyderabad venue for the World Cup matches and he will try to resolve the issues, if any. He adds that there is no chance of changing the schedule now as it is not just the BCCI which is involved but the ICC and teams are also involved in this matter.
HCA will be hosting 3 World Cup matches and we are quite sure that the cricket lovers of Hyderabad will love to watch matches in the stadium.