India cancels plan to co-host Asia XI vs World XI match
Image : Getty
|| CF Correspondent ||
Bangladesh Cricket Board official said on Tuesday that India will not host any exhibition matches between Asia XI and World XI that will played to celebrate the 100th birthday of their Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
Bangladesh will host two T20Is to celebrate the occasion and the two matches that will have international status will be played respectively on March 18 and 22 in Mirpur.
Earlier it was reported that BCCI plans to host one exhibition match of the two-match series between Asia XI and World XI the new Sardar Patel stadium, built at a cost of $100 million.
The stadium that is still under construction is situated on the far west of India, in the city of Ahmedabad is considered as the world’s largest cricket stadium spreading over 63 acres with a clubhouse that includes 50 rooms and an Olympic-size swimming pool and 73 corporate boxes.
After receiving confirmation from the Gujarat Cricket Association on the progress of the stadium’s construction, BCCI president Sourav Ganguly has stated that he will seek ICC’s approval for the opening game of the series scheduled to be played in March.
Ganguly confirmed to media after BCCI’s annual general body meeting held in Mumbai that there will be Asia XI vs World XI game but it will be subject to ICC’s approval.
However, BCCI president Ganguly changed his stance regarding hosting the match and informed it to BCB officials during a meeting at Kolkata recently as the stadium will not be ready to host the match during that time frame.
A match was expected to be played there as they were expected to inaugurate a big stadium but now they[ BCCI] is not ready to do it and both the matches will be played here,’’ BCB chief executive Nizamuddin Chowdhury told reporters on Wednesday after completing a meeting with the BCCI boss at Kolkata the previous day.
‘’There is no chance that the matches will be played in India at this point of time and it can only happen on a different time frame and on a different occasion provided they are interested. But they were very keen to host it,’’ he said.
Nizamuddin added that they are looking forward to make the event colorful and keeping no stone unturned so that we can make the occasion a thing to remember and BCB had already have plans in place to invite big names to make the tournament colourful.
‘’We are open to inviting everyone. We will definitely invite the high-ups of the cricket world, dignitaries who are in the ICC and other important positions. Also, we will try to bring cricketing legends of different eras. We will try to make all the necessary measurements to make the event colourful,’’ said Nizamuddin.
‘’We are communicating with almost everyone. As I said, we are contacting with every player who are in our list. There are a few complications that we need to work on. There are some cases where there is a series starting or there is a series starting right after the event. On those cases, we are working on how we can ensure their participation,’’ he said.
‘’It would have been much easier for us if we could call on retired players. But as both the matches have been given international status, there is no chance of calling retired players. International cricket legends could attend the event, but there is no chance of them playing,’’ he said.
Currently BCB have prepared a shortlist of players for the exhibition match and asking different board for cooperation in this regard.
‘’The team will be announced right before the matches. It won’t be announced so soon. This is not the national squad that we can announce whenever we want to. Player availability is a big issue. Their international commitments are also very important,’’ said Nizamuddin
‘’You will get to know how many Bangladeshi players will be in the team after we form the squads. We will definitely have some priority. But I don’t want to take names or say number right now. We will decide that after discussing it with the board. We will take the decision after discussing it with our selectors,’’ he concluded.
