Kolkata, Jan. 28: A day after Eden Gardens faced the embarrassment of being snubbed as a venue for the India-England World Cup game, the Cricket Association of Bengal still seems busy looking for excuses. Although a section of senior officials admit the entire renovation process should have been completed a month ago, others look to be living with the mindset with which work used to be carried out before the 1987 World Cup final and the ’96 semifinal.
The latest addition to the causes that delayed the entire work is the Indian Premier League matches and the India-South Africa Test from February 14-18. “The IPL matches (at Eden) ended on April 20 and it took quite a few days to demolish the super hospitality box built for the T20 tournament. Work could begin only on May 12,” CAB stadium committee chairman and ex-secretary Chitrak Mitra said on Friday.
“Besides, work had to be stopped for as many as 15 days owing to the India-South Africa Test. At the same time, I had mailed ICC 18 points on the renovation process but there wasn’t any response whatsoever from them,” he added.
These reasons, apart, an emergency meeting of CAB officials and contractor Shapoorji Pallonji and Co. Ltd was held in the morning with Monday being the deadline for the work.
In the meantime, BCCI president Shashank Manohar had written to the ICC after CAB president Jagmohan Dalmiya had written to the board, requesting it to advise the sport’s parent body to reconsider the decision of shifting the India-England encounter from Eden.
According to agency reports, ICC president Sharad Pawar hinted that Eden might still host the high-voltage encounter only if other member countries agree.
CAB too are hopeful that Eden would “certainly host” four World Cup matches even if the India-England one goes to another venue. “We would always want to stage an India-England game. But if that doesn’t happen, a possibility of a swap is there then. We could host the India-Netherlands tie scheduled at Ferozeshah Kotla or the India-Ireland one slated in Bengaluru,” an insider claimed.
Well-placed sources also informed that Dalmiya has been in constant touch with his DDCA counterpart Arun Jaitley to strike a deal.