The much-anticipated India-Pakistan game at the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 will be played on October 14 instead of originally scheduled date of October 15, reported ESPNCricinfo on Wednesday.
Though ICC has not released a revised schedule for the World Cup, which is expected to come out this week, ESPNCricinfo understands that the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has agreed on the change. The venue will be Ahmedabad's Narendra Modi stadium as originally announced.
The date change for the biggest fixture of the tournament has an impact on Pakistan's preceding fixture against Sri Lanka as well. It will be played in Hyderabad as originally announced but it will be played on October 10 instead of October 12, allowing Pakistan enough gap between two matches.
The need for schedule change arose because the original date of India-Pakistan match also marks the first day of Hindu festival of 'Navaratri'. The local police is concerned that it would get difficult to provide adequate security on that day. The International Cricket Council (ICC) wrote to PCB a few days back about this change to which the board agreed.
Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary Jay Shah, however, had said that the clash with 'Navaratri' was not reason for the change. He had said last week that several full ICC members had requested changes in the tournament schedule and some tweaks will be done.
The change to India-Pakistan date will also have an impact on other teams and matches. October 14 is also a double header, which will feature matches between Bangladesh and New Zealand in Chennai and Afghanistan and England in Delhi, the latter game is likely to be played potentially a day earlier on October 13.
The changes to the schedule, just two months away from the World Cup starting from October 5, comes after the original schedule was announced in June after several delays. It was released with just 100 days to go to the tournament by ICC and BCCI. In comparison, schedule for 2019 Cricket World Cup hosted by England and Wales and 2015 Cricket World Cup hosted by Australia and New Zealand was released more than 12 months in advance.
The tournament will start off with a match between defending champions England taking on 2019 finalists New Zealand in Ahmedabad. No announcement about ticket sales has been made so far by BCCI and ICC. (ANI)
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