Stadium did not meet ICC standards, BCCI official says after Punjab minister alleges 'political interference' over Mohali's omission from World Cup fixtures

London, June 27

Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) vice president Rajeev Shukla said a lot of centres and zones have been accommodated in the recently-released ICC Cricket World Cup schedule and Mohali, Punjab, not getting a single match in the tournament is because the current stadium there did not meet the standards of ICC, whose consent is extremely important in finalising the venues.

Shukla’s statement comes a day after Punjab Sports Minister Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer raised objections over the exclusion of Mohali from the World Cup schedule alleging that it was due to ‘political interference’.

“The exclusion of Punjab’s Mohali from the list of host cities for the tournament was due to political interference. Punjab government will raise this issue with BCCI,” Hayer had said.

Shukla said this time 12 venues had been chosen for the cricketing event, something which had not happened before.

“For the first time, 12 venues have been chosen for the World Cup. These many venues were not chosen in the previous World Cups. Of these 12 venues, warm-up matches will be held in Trivandrum and Guwahati; the remaining venues will have league matches. More centres have been accommodated. Four venues from the south zone, one from central, two from west, and two venues from north zone — Delhi and Dharamshala — will host the matches,” Shukla said in an exclusive interview with ANI.

Shukla said bilateral series matches would be given to Mohali and there would be no discrimination.