Affiliates miss BCCI stadium deadline

Kanpur, Guwahati, Jamshedpur, Pune, Goa and Kochi would be off the international cricket radar from September having failed to meet a BCCI deadline.

Kanpur, Guwahati, Jamshedpur, Pune, Goa and Kochi would be off the international cricket radar from September having failed to meet a Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) deadline.

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This follows the BCCI’s working committee decision on Wednesday to not award international matches to associations without own grounds.

The BCCI had asked affiliates in 2007 to obtain ownership of existing venues or build a stadium by September 2009. It had promised up to Rs 50 crore for new stadiums. None of the associations it seems will meet the deadline now four months away.

The earliest could be the Jharkhand Cricket Association (JCA) whose deadline for the completion of their new stadium in Dhurwa near the Ranchi airport is of November 2010.

“The BCCI has promised Rs 25 crore but we want to request them for another Rs 25 crore,” JCA secretary Rajesh Verma said. Like Jharkhand, most associations have already begun work on their new stadium except of course Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association and the Goa Cricket Association.

“We are hopeful that by September we will be able to own an international stadium,” UPCA director Jyoti Bajpai told HT, adding, “Our secretary Rajiv Shukla is trying his best to have the ground as soon as possible.”

UPCA has been talking of constructing its own stadium from 2005 after they were denied permission to hold UP-Mumbai Ranji Trophy one-day final in Lucknow forcing it to be relocated to Mumbai.

Goa, however, has identified land but work is yet to start.

“We have identified land in north Goa and the blueprint for an international stadium is ready.

“We hope to begin work by the end of this year and the construction would take around two more years,” Dayanand Narwekar, president Goa Cricket Association, said