India will host Pakistan’s cricket team for the primary time in seven years within the 50-over World Cup in October, the International Cricket Council stated on Tuesday.
The event will begin with holders England taking up New Zealand on October 5 at the world’s largest cricket stadium in Ahmedabad, so that you can additionally host the final.
The maximum-awaited clash between rivals India and Pakistan may be performed in the identical probably contentious venue on October 15, after the hosts kick off their marketing campaign against Australia per week earlier.
The schedule became introduced after weeks of put off because of Pakistan’s in advance refusal to travel to India, however a compromise turned into reached while Pakistan agreed to host a hybrid-version Asia Cup in September.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) stated their team could require clearance from Islamabad to play.
“We are liaising with our government for steering,” PCB Communications Director Sami Ul Hasan said.”This role is constant to what we had instructed the ICC more than one weeks in the past after they shared with us the draft time table and sought our remarks,” he stated.
However, Ahmedabad, the house metropolis of India’s Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is of challenge to Muslim-majority Pakistan, who had in advance expressed reservations about playing at the 132,000-seat venue.
Ahmedabad was the centre of lethal 2002 spiritual riots in which as a minimum 1,000 humans, often Muslims, have been killed in sectarian violence that sent surprise waves around the arena.
In Pakistan’s previous cricket experience to India at some point of the 2016 T20 World Cup, the fit became shifted from Dharamsala to Kolkata over protection issues.
The 48-healthy match could be performed at 10 venues throughout 46 days, with the top four from the ten-team round-robin stage going via to the semi-finals, the ICC said in a announcement one hundred days before the match starts offevolved.
Eight groups have already qualified via the World Cup Super League. The very last two spots might be filled on the cease of the cutting-edge qualifying match in Zimbabwe.
“It’s going to be a extraordinary enjoy playing in the World Cup at domestic,” Indian skipper Rohit Sharma stated. “India received right here 12 years ago, and I realize enthusiasts nationwide cannot wait for us to take the field this time.”
India and Pakistan are bitter adversaries and only play cricket towards each other in worldwide tournaments, generally at impartial venues, because of longstanding political tensions, most these days at some stage in the T20 World Cup in Australia final year.
Any in shape between the South Asian neighbours therefore becomes one of the maximum-watched occasions on the worldwide sporting calendar and any victory is used to promote nationalism at domestic.
When they do play, cricket fans round the sector are glued to their TV displays in a multi-billion-dollar bonanza for broadcasters.
The 2019 50-over World Cup clash among India and Pakistan drew 273 million visitors.
India and Pakistan have no longer met on both aspect’s soil in a bilateral collection since 2012.
They have also now not played a Test in opposition to each different considering the fact that 2007, as an alternative meeting only within the shorter versions of the sport.
India and Pakistan percentage deep cultural and linguistic links but their history has been mired in violence and bloodshed.
The two nuclear-armed countries have fought 3 wars because the subcontinent’s partition in 1947.
India last won the ODI World Cup on domestic soil in 2011. Since then, Australia and England have gained the identify in their very own backyards in 2015 and 2019 respectively.
India will face England on October 29 in Lucknow, at the same time as the English will tackle Australia on November four at Ahmedabad in different key fixtures.
The first semi-final might be on November 15 in Mumbai and the second in Kolkata day after today.
