NEW DELHI, India: The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Wednesday announced to shift the T20 World Cup match between Pakistan and India to Kolkata from Dharamsala as per requests by the Pakistani government.
Earlier the Pak-India match as part of the ICC T20 World Cup had to be played at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium on March 19. However, strong protests erupted in Himachal Pradesh against the match while the State Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh also expressed helplessness to provide adequate security to the Pakistan team.
Subsequently, the Pakistani government sent a three-member security team to India to assess the security situation and later as per the security report, the government stopped the national team to travel to the neighboring country. Meanwhile, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) suggested the ICC to shift the venue of the Pakistan-India T20 from Dharamsala to Kolkata or Mohali.
Talking to media in Delhi on Wednesday, the ICC Chief Executive Dave Richardson announced that now the Pakistan-India World T20 match will be played at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on March 19 because of security concerns.
The ICC Chief Executive said that the match was sifted after a mutual consultation. He assured that the Pakistan cricket team will be provided full security.
“Safety and security of the event is of paramount importance to ICC,” Dave Richardson said.
Although Pakistan are yet to play a T20 in Kolkata, they have 100% winning record against India in ODIs at Eden Gardens. Played 4, Won 4.
— Mazher Arshad (@MazherArshad) March 9, 2016
