World Cup schedule likely to be changed: Jay Shah | Cricket News

NEW DELHI: Amid speculation that India-Pakistan match could be rescheduled, BCCI secretary Jay Shah said that one could see a few changes in the upcoming ODI World Cup in India in Oct-Nov. Shah insisted that there have been requests from a few International Cricket Council (ICC) member nations to change the schedule citing very small gaps between a few games.

“A few members have requested that they have short gaps between two matches while they have a long gap of six days before other games. We are trying to just change the date and time of matches while retaining the venues. Things will be sorted in a few days. These things happen in World Cups,” Shah said here on Thursday. Shah didn’t want to name the member nations and asserted that it will be done in coordination with the ICC.
There have been reports that there could be security issues in Ahmedabad on Oct 15, the day fixed for India-Pakistan match. Shah denied the security threats and reiterated that if the scheduled is changed it will be only because of the requests from member nations.

Hygiene, free drinking water top priority in stadiums
The BCCI has briefed the host state associations that hygiene for crowd should be top priority during the World Cup. We have brought in an agency and our focus is toilets and housekeeping. “We have not specified any amount to be granted to state associations for stadium upgradation. We have just told them to focus on stadium hygiene. We have also tied up with Coca Cola to provide complimentary drinking water at stadiums,” Shah said. “We will also request ticket holders to take metro and local trains to stadium to avoid traffic chaos on match days,” he added.
Bumrah fit, no player will play directly in WC
Shah confirmed that Jasprit Bumrah has completely recovered from his back injury and is likely to travel to Ireland for a T20I series next month. The BCCI secretary also claimed that there will be consistency in selections. Currently Bumrah, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant and Prasidh Krishna are nursing injuries at the NCA. “There is no time frame for these players to declare themselves fit. But we will have consistency in selection after the Ireland tour. No player will be directly included in the World Cup squad without playing matches before that,” Shah said.
India ‘A’ programme back
Shah announced the restoration of the ‘A’ programme after the World Cup. He said that India ‘A’ will play matches in South Africa before the Test team goes there later in the year and England ‘A’ will visit India ahead of England’s tour of India early next year. “We have to field multiple India teams which across the globe so that other boards can survive financially. But we have worked a time for these two ‘A’ series,” Shah said.
BCCI to speak to Harmanpreet
BCCI president Roger Binny and NCA head VVS Laxman will talk to India women’s captain Harmanpreet Kaur after she was suspended for two matches by ICC for her poor behaviour against the umpires in the recent tour of Bangladesh. “We will have our president and Laxman speaking to her about her outburst. We are not going to challenge her suspension. Anyway, the time period to appeal the suspension has passed,” Shah said.