Mumbai’s Wankhede, Kolkata’s Eden Gardens get semifinals; Mohali snubbed
MUMBAI: Ringing in the 100-day countdown to the ODI tournament, the International Cricket Council (ICC) said Ahmedabad will stage the World Cup opener on October 5 between defending champions England and runners-up New Zealand, a rematch of the 2019 World Cup final.
The two semifinals will be played in Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium (on November 15) and the Eden Gardens in Kolkata (November 16).
If Pakistan make it to the semifinals, they will play the last four clash in Kolkata, while India, if they qualify for the semifinals, will play in Mumbai unless they are playing against Pakistan, in which case their match will be moved to Kolkata. Hosts India will begin their campaign with a high-octane clash against Australia on October 8 in Chennai.
The World Cup will be played across 10 venues — Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Dharamsala, Delhi, Chennai, Lucknow, Pune, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Kolkata.
The tournament’s warm-up matches will be played from September 29 to October 3 in Guwahati (4), Thiruvananthapuram (4) and Hyderabad (2).
Mohali — which staged the 1996 and 2011 World Cup semifinals — Nagpur, Rajkot, Indore and Vizag will not stage any World Cup game. After a meeting of 12 hosting associations in Mumbai on Monday to finalise the venues before Tuesday’s official announcement, the venue of one semifinal was moved from Chennai to Kolkata due to northeast monsoons that time of the year.
The Wankhede (2011) and the Eden Gardens (1987) have hosted World Cup finals before. Like in the last World Cup, there will be 10 teams in this edition too — hosts India, Afghanistan, Australia, England, Bangladesh, New Zealand, Pakistan, and South Africa, while two other teams will make it to the World Cup through the ongoing qualifiers.
