Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Eden gets go ahead to host other matches: Reports


After losing out on the high profile India England World Cup match, the Eden Gardens was given the green signal to go ahead with the other three matches by the ICC.

ICC CEO Haroon Lorgat told reporters, "ICC is happy with progress of work at Eden Gardens, remaining 3 matches could be held there," after the cricket body's team inspected the venue yesterday.

"We are pleased with the progress made since January 25 and if that pace of work is maintained, we believe that the stadium will be ready for the games scheduled in March," he added.

As per a timeline given by the ICC, part of the work has to be completed by Feb 14 and the entire work schedule by Feb 22.

This ends days of uncertainty and speculation whether the stadium in Kolkata, which hosted the 1987 final, will complete the renovation work and be ready on time.

The ICC had earlier ruled that Eden Gardens would not be able to host the India England match, which is the only match featuring co-hosts India at the stadium, as the renovation work was too slow.

"That(shifting the India-England game to Eden) will be extremely difficult. A shifting requires all sorts of logistical changes which may not be possible in such a short duration," Lorgat said, giving clear indication about the end of any hopes that CAB harboured about having at least one India match at the Eden Gardens.

The other three matches are South Africa vs Ireland on March 15, Ireland vs Netherlands on March 18 and Zimbabwe vs Kenya on March 20.

The World Cup, which is being co-hosted by India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, begins on February 19 in Dhaka.

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