'Political interference': Oppn leaders question Ahmedabad getting WC matches, but not Mohali and Thiruvananthapuram

Punjab Sports Minister Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer and senior Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Tuesday took exception to exclusion of Mohali and Thiruvananthapuram from the World Cup cricket matches, while hinting at political interference as Ahmedabad got matches but their home states missed out.

According to the World Cup 2023 fixture, there are 10 venues in India -- Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Dharamsala, Delhi, Chennai, Lucknow, Pune, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Kolkata. The much anticipated India-Pakistan match will be played in Ahmedabad's Narendra Modi stadium, besides the final on November 19.

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Tharoor tweeted, "Disappointed to see that Thiruvananthapuram's Sports Hub, hailed by many as the best cricket stadium in India, is missing from the World Cup 2023 fixture list. Ahmedabad is becoming the new cricket capital of the country, but could a match or two not have been allotted to Kerala?"

Condemning the exclusion of Mohali, Hayer said the decision was motivated by political reasons and that Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann will raise the issue of this "discrimination".

Although several high-profile matches were held in the Mohali stadium, including the World Cup semi-finals in 1996 and 2011, still it was not included to host any match this time, he said.

There is "political interference" in the functioning of the BCCI and "everyone knows who is heading BCCI", he alleged.

He also referred to Dharamshala hosting five matches and said Mohali is a much bigger stadium in terms of capacity and Punjab has better facilities for hosting such games. However, this was ignored, he alleged.