Earlier this week, the International Cricket Council released the complete fixtures for the 2023 ODI World Cup, slated to be held in India from October 5 to November 19.
As per the schedule, the highly-anticipated India versus Pakistan encounter will be played at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on October 15. Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Kolkata are the other four venues where Pakistan’s league matches have been allocated.
Meanwhile, a report published in PTI claims that Pakistan will send a security delegation to India for inspecting the venues before giving clearance to the national team regarding their travel to the neighbouring country for the 50-over World Cup.
The report, quoting a source in the Inter-Provincial Coordination (Sports) Ministry, stated that the government, including the foreign and interior ministry would decide when to send the security delegation to India once the new chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board gets elected after the Eid holidays.
"The security delegation will go with representation from the PCB to inspect the venues where Pakistan will play and also the security and other arrangements made for them in the World Cup," PTI quoted an official source as saying.
"Before any tour to India it is standard practice for the cricket board to seek permission from the government which normally sends a delegation to India," he added.
"The delegation will interact with the officials there and discuss and inspect with them the security and other arrangements for our players, officials, fans and media, who will go for the tournament," he continued.
The source further said that if the delegation feels it would be better for Pakistan to play at some other venue instead of the assigned one, it will mention that in its report.
"The PCB will share the report with the ICC and BCCI if the delegation has any concerns," he stated.
The source also mentioned that when Pakistan travelled to India for the T20 World Cup in 2016, the government had sent a joint delegation to inspect the venues.
"It was on the recommendation of the delegation that Pakistan's match at Dharamsala against India was moved to Kolkata."
As per the source, Pakistan's participation in the World Cup would only be confirmed when the government gives a green signal to the PCB.
"This is not unusual and it is standard procedure for all tours to India. Even in other sports the respective national federations have to get clearance from the government to send their teams to India for any competition," he said.
(With PTI Inputs)
