The iconic Eden Gardens has emerged as a strong contender to host one of the semifinals in this year’s ICC World Cup 2023. While the scheduled is yet to be announced by the governing body, reports state that one of the semifinals could take place in Kolkata.
India are set to host the much-anticipated marquee event this year. While India have co-hosted the tournament thrice in the past, they will be hosting it alone this year. The schedule for the tournament is likely to be announced by the ICC soon.
According to Cricbuzz, the decision to allot a semifinal to Eden Gardens took shape at a meeting of the state associations of host cities with the BCCI and ICC officials on Monday (June 26). There were 12 associations who attended the meeting. One of the reasons for moving a semifinal from Chennai to Kolkata was the potential weather in October-November in the Tamil Nadu capital city.
The southern state experiences rain during that time of the year and it could play spoilsport during the World Cup match. Consequently, the apex body felt that hosting the semifinal in Chennai might not have been the best option. Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA), however, will get to host a few ICC World Cup 2023 games.
ICC World Cup 2023 venues:
The report further stated that the 12 venues for the ICC World Cup 2023 are expected to be – New Delhi, Dharamsala, Lucknow, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Pune, Kolkata, Guwahati, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Thiruvananthapuram. Guwahati and Thiruvananthapuram will only host warm-up games, while the other 10 centers will stage the 48 official World Cup matches, including the three knockout games.
The BCCI and the ICC had initially planned to conduct the semifinals at the Wankhede (Mumbai) and Chepauk (Chennai). Later, Bengaluru emerged as an option too. However just before the schedule unveiling, Kolkata have emerged as the likely venue to host one of the semifinals. Mumbai and Kolkata are likely to host the semifinal while Ahmedabad will be the venue for the final.