Eden Gardens loses India vs England World Cup game, Wankhede cleared

In a major embarrassment for co-hosts India, the International Cricket Council today ruled out the historic Eden Gardens as the venue for the key World Cup match between India and England after the stadium failed to meet the deadline for completion of renovation.

The February 27 match will now be held at another venue yet to be decided.

"A venue inspection team which included the tournament director, members of the Central Organising Committee (COC) and the ICC, today reported on the readiness of five outstanding venues scheduled to host matches in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011," the ICC said in a statement.

"Following the inspection tour, the three Sri Lanka venues - Colombo, Hambantota and Pallekele - as well as the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai have been approved subject to minor finishing work being completed within specified time frames not exceeding 14 days. The expert report, however, determined that Eden Gardens in Kolkata would not be ready within an acceptable time frame to host the India v England ICC Cricket World Cup match on 27 February," it added.

The Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) has reacted angrily to the ICC's decision and insisted that the Eden would have been ready in time for the match.
"We were confident of hosting the match. There is no question of being behind schedule. Everything is built up. The entire stadium is renovated," CAB Joint Secretary Biswarup Dey said.

"We have not received any communication from the ICC> I don't know why they have taken the decision," a peeved Dey added.

Specifying the reasons for taking away the match from Eden, the ICC said, "Of particular concern was the fact that host venue obligations in relation to cricket operations, media, broadcast and sponsorship facilities were not finalised and/or confirmed by the venue."

The ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat has conveyed the decision to the BCCI and, "as host, the BCCI will now consider an alternate venue for approval by the ICC."

"All venues had ample time in which to prepare for world cup matches. We had been understanding and had provided extensions to the deadline dates but unfortunately we are now at a point where we must carefully manage our risks," Lorgat said.

"The COC had provided venues with a deadline of 30 November 2010 to complete all construction work and then to be match-ready by 31 December 2010. An extension was granted by the ICC for five venues, which were again inspected over the past week. Sadly, Eden Gardens in Kolkata was unable to meet the final deadline date of 25 January 2011," he added.

Lorgat said Eden did not measure up to the ICC standards.

"Regrettably, Eden Gardens has not made sufficient progress to justify the level of confidence required to confirm that the venue would be ready in good time. This was no easy decision to take and while it is most unfortunate, it is absolutely necessary," said Lorgat.

The inspection team drew on the knowledge and experience of some of the leading experts in the field of stadium and ground preparation and the view was that Eden Gardens would not be ready.

Tournament director Prof Ratnakar Shetty said, "We will work with the new venue, the tour operators and the ticket distributors to manage the logistical challenges that will surely arise."

The ICC's decision will come as a huge disappointment for the cricket-crazy fans of Kolkata as the India-England had generated high interest and many of the tickets were already sold online.

The India-England clash was to be the only match featuring the co-hosts at the venue and the other scheduled clashes mostly feature minnows.

South Africa-Ireland (March 15), Netherlands-Ireland (March 18) and Zimbabwe-Kenya (March 20) are the other games scheduled at the venue.