Eden Gardens, Wankhede to be ready for WC by Jan

The Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) and Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) on Saturday expressed confidence that the two World Cup venues -- Eden Gardens and Wankhede Stadium – will be ready by the middle of January next year.

According to reports, the ICC has raised concerns over the preparedness of the under-renovation Eden Gardens in Kolkata and the Wankhede in Mumbai, which will together host seven matches, including the final, of the mega-event.

"It (Eden Gardens) will be completed in January. But our plan was to complete it two months earlier," CAB chief Jagmohan Dalmiya said in Mumbai.

"The ICC only wanted to know by which date it (stadium ready) will be done. It will be done by January," he added.

According to MCA joint secretary Lalchand Rajput, the ICC's inspection team had expressed reservations about the umpires room, medical and anti-doping room and the commentators box at the Wankhede.

"We are going to modify as per ICC's suggestions. We are confident that everything will be ready when the ICC inspection team returns by the middle of January. We are ready to host the World Cup matches," he said.

As per media reports, the international governing body's inspection team, headed by ICC events manager Chris Tetley, in an interim report, had said that work at the two stadiums, that had missed the original November 30 deadline, was likely to over-run by at least a month.

The team had visited the Wankhede and the Eden Gardens on December 8 and 9 respectively.