The city that hosts the India-Pakistan encounter cannot afford to be Kolkata ’96, they need to be Chennai ’99; preserve the fragile Indo-Pak hyphen in sports
It was during those chaotic months before the 2010 Commonwealth Games, that the then Sports Minister MS Gill made a statement that till date offers respite to all sports administrators fighting deadlines in run-up to high-profile events. Tired of answering questions about the unfinished stadiums and umpteen organisations snafus, the bureaucrat turned parliamentarian made a prophecy that more or less came true.
Like the Delhi CWG 2010, India gets ready for another October wedding and not everything is going according to plan. Cricket’s oldest and biggest rock show, the 50 overs World Cup, is barely two months away but the fans still wait for the final modified schedule. While coming to terms with the flight cancellation losses, they keep their fingers crossed to deal with the suspense over match-day ticket sales.
Unofficially, the reason for the expected date-shift is the potential security stretch but BCCI secretary Jay Shah has insisted that it is because of ‘requests of change’ floated by other boards. Whatever be the truth, there are a couple of questions that beg to be answered: Didn’t the schedule makers refer to the panchangam that lists Hindu festivals? Wasn’t the itinerary cleared by all participating nations before the ICC made it public?
World Cup veteran
Like in Monsoon Wedding, this ‘delay’ is the drizzle that is causing inconvenience but wouldn’t come in the way of watering down the excitement of a World Cup that will be played in a stadium packed by the game’s most passionate fans.
