Kolkata,December 10: Eden Gardens might lose out on hosting an India match if Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s men fail to qualify for the final of the World T20 . According to sources , ICC have allotted only non-India matches apart from the final on April 03 . City cricket lovers will feel deprived if they do not get to watch any India matches . Sources also confirm that Eden Gardens might host two practice matches , one featuring India . The venues for the World Twenty 20 will be officially announced at an event in Mumbai wherein Virat Kohli , Ajinkya Rahane and Shikhar Dhawan are to be present . During the 2011 ICC World Cup , India’s group league match with England had to be shifted to Bangalore owing to CAB failing to meet the deadline of renovation work . Cricket Association of Bengal officials are in touch with BCCI top brass to get them to host at least one India match during group stage .
A 12 member team from ICC headed by Chris Tetley, met with CAB president Sourav Ganguly during their visit at the Eden Gardens today. The ICC team , though seemed happy with the development work in recent years want to see four dressing rooms at the iconic venue . According to the ICC team , since there will be two finals played on the same day with the women’s final slated to take place before the men’s final , it would be a better idea to accommodate all the four teams for the final . The team had put forward to the CAB officials certain requirements :
1) To have separate dressing rooms for the mens and womens finalists respectively.
2) Increase the number of seats in the press box.
3) New electrical wiring at the venue .
As a temporary measure CAB suggested to the ICC officials to turn the canteen adjacent to the club housing building into one dressing room , while the other dressing room will be temporarily constructed at the vacant place where the Super-Sopper machines are kept now .
According to Chris Tetley, ICC Head of Events, “ It was a fruitful meeting with the officials here . But we are in no hurry to give a green signal , but we would very much like the finals to be a grand occasion at this iconic venue .”
BCCI venue operations manager Dr R Sridhar stressed “ Do not see any need to have any new structure being built at the stadium . But need to have some rearrangements to get the stadium into perfect shape before the finals.”
Cricket crazy fans of Kolkata can only hope for Eden Gardens getting to host an India match in group stage apart from the finals .