• BCCI official says a number of boards have asked for match schedule to be revised
• No e-tickets this time as Indian board makes carrying physical tickets mandatory

NEW DELHI: Barely three months to go before the start of the 50-overs World Cup, the organising Indian cricket board has said the schedule would be adjusted and an Oct 15 India vs Pakistan blockbuster in Ahmedabad could be among the matches affected.

World Cup schedules are usually announced a year before the start of the event, but the fixtures for the tournament in India, scheduled from Oct 5, were unveiled only last month.

The inordinate delay has inconvenienced fans who plan to travel to India for the tournament and BCCI secretary Jay Shah confirmed even the schedule announced last month is not final.

“Two or three boards have written in, asking to change based on the logistical challenges,” Reuters quoted Mr Shah as telling reporters on Thursday.

“We are working out with the ICC, and we should be able to clear it in two or three days,” he said, referring to the governing International Cricket Council.

“The venues will not change, as it will give rise to several logistical challenges. What we are looking at is that if a team has six days between matches, we reduce it to five, and if a team has two days between games, we make it three,” he said. “Teams should get adequate time to travel, rest and train between matches at a World Cup. There are some matches where there is only a two-day gap, so it will be difficult to play and then travel the next day.”

Declining to name which games have a chance to be rescheduled, the BCCI secretary said it was a job to be coordinated between the logistical arms of the Indian board and the ICC.

“I don’t interfere in that,” he said, adding that “it’s very important for us that the venue doesn’t change.”

However, Mr Shah said there was no issue over adequate security arrangements for the Ahmedabad game between India and Pakistan due to it falling during the festive season. But he said the final picture would be clear in a few days. “In India, minor changes keep taking place as we go along,” he said.

Media reported that the much-anticipated India-Pakistan tie would be brought forward by a day as adequate police security might not be possible on Oct 15, which marks the beginning of a Hindu festival.

Pakistan have said they wo ld require government permission to travel to India for the World Cup though the ICC is hopeful of their participation.

The neighbours have played each other only in multi-team events at neutral venues over the past decade.

Meanwhile, World Cup organisers have not announced when and where fans can buy tickets and an ICC spokesperson said it would be BCCI’s call.

“We had a meeting of the state units hosting World Cup matches which, barring one or two, everybody attended. We have almost finalised our ticketing partner as well,” Mr Shah said, according to the Indian Express.

“There’s a timeline till Monday, after which ICC and BCCI will make a joint announcement about tickets, their availability, pricing and all other issues.”

According to Mr Shah, carrying physical tickets would be compulsory during the showpiece.

“We are not having e-tickets this time. But we will arrange for the physical tickets to be ready at seven or eight spots from a week before the game. It will be difficult to have e-tickets at big venues such as Ahmedabad or Lucknow. We will trial it in bilateral series before introducing it in big tournaments,” he said.

Published in Dawn, July 29th, 2023