It seems like the issues with the scheduling of the ICC Cricket World Cup are not going to end anytime soon. After 9 matches were rescheduled in the first big tweak, Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) had asked for another change citing the inability to provide security in consecutive games on October 9 and 10. After the request was not fulfilled, HCA asked for another change with the warm-up match between Pakistan and New Zealand scheduled for Friday, September 29 citing the festivals of Ganesh Visarjan and Milad un Nabi.
That request was also quashed and now it seems the HCA has decided to take the decision itself by not having crowds for the said warm-up game on Friday. As per a report by The Indian Express, the Pakistan-New Zealand match will be played behind closed doors and the spectators, who had bought tickets for the warm-up game will be refunded.
“The game will be played without spectators and those who have booked their tickets, their money will be refunded,” a BCCI official was quoted as saying. The report stated that the board would inform the ticketing partner BookMyShow to initiate the refund process with no crowd allowed at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium for the said game.
Apart from Pakistan-New Zealand, two other warm-up matches – Bangladesh-Sri Lanka in Guwahati and Afghanistan-South Africa in Thiruvananthapuram are set to take place on Friday, September 29.
A total of 10 warm-up matches will take place ahead of the main tournament, across three venues as all 10 teams fine-tune their preparations for the World Cup.
The World Cup is set to kick off with a repeat of the final of the 2019 edition between England and New Zealand on October 5 with the final slated to be held on Sunday, November 19 with both games at Ahmedabad’s Narendra Modi Stadium.
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