Just a few days ago, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BBCI) has announced the itinerary schedule for the upcoming home international series against England. Now, some state associations have questioned the venue selections for this upcoming home series and asked for the clarification of their future status.
The Indian national cricket team is currently busy in Australia tour, where they already completed the limited-overs series (3-match ODI series and 3-match T20I series), and they are getting ready for the much-awaited four-match Test series.
BCCI named three venues for England series
After this tour, India will host England, where four Tests, five T20Is and three ODIs will be played between these two top international teams. This entire tour will run between 5th February and 28th March 2021. M. A. Chidambaram Stadium (Chennai) will host the first two Tests, while the newly-built Sardar Patel Stadium (Ahmedabad) will then host the last two Tests and all the five T20Is. In the end, Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium (Pune) will host the three ODIs.
Earlier, last September, BCCI President Sourav Ganguly talked about the potential hosts if England international series happen in India, and on that topic, he took the names of Mumbai and Kolkata. So, the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) and Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) were disappointed after understanding that they wouldn’t host any of the matches during England tour of India.
Ganguly told at that time, “We also have the same facility [bio-secure bubble] in Mumbai – Cricket Club of India [Brabourne Stadium], Wankhede [Stadium], and D.Y. Patil [Stadium]. We also have Eden Gardens [Kolkata]. We have to create a bubble. We want to hold our cricket in India, that’s where the game is, that’s where the heart is.”
MCA executive committee member Nadeem Memon is surprised on the latest venue selection for the England tour of India. He has reportedly asked MCA president Vijay Patil to get clarification of the reason why they haven’t get any hosting duty during the upcoming England tour of India.
CAB was expecting a match against England: CAB President Avishek Dalmiya
Meanwhile, the CAB President Avishek Dalmiya was also expecting to host the international match during England tour of India after their pervious ODI hosting duty, which was the match between India and South Africa on 18th March 2020, was ultimately cancelled due to COVID-19 outbreak.
Avishek said, “CAB was expecting a match against England, especially since the last ODI match, which was scheduled to be played in Kolkata got cancelled. In this context, I did have a word with the BCCI president, Mr. Sourav Ganguly, and enquired if Kolkata could be accommodated, to which Mr Ganguly informed that these are unprecedented times and that BCCI had to settle with a maximum of three venues this time due to ongoing pandemic.”
While the BCCI has the next plan to host South Africa, New Zealand, the CAB President is expecting to get hosting duty in that time as the BCCI President Sourav Ganguly has assured him on this matter.