Snehasish Ganguly, the president of the Cricket Association of Bengal, said on Tuesday that the preparations have already started for the 2023 World Cup at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata, while hoping for a 'dream semi-final' match between arch-rivals India and Pakistan at the iconic stadium.
India and Pakistan will square-off in their World Cup league match at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. The opening game of the World Cup is scheduled to place at the same venue on October 5 between defending champions England and New Zealand.
"Preparations have started. We started preparations after IPL for the World Cup. We are renovating the stadium, corporate boxes. Ground conditions are excellent. Preparations will start from July 1 for the ground. We had a meeting with our curator. Eden Gardens is ready to host the World Cup. There are some patches here and there, within the next two months, we will resolve all those issues," said Ganguly.
On the World Cup schedule, Ganguly expressed his satisfaction, saying that they got "what we expected, what we wished for."
"We tried that we get a semi-final match this time and at the last moment, we got a semi-final match at Eden," he said.
Kolkata will host Qualifier 1 vs Bangladesh on October 28, Pakistan vs Bangladesh on October 31, India vs South Africa on November 5, England vs Pakistan on November 12 and the second semi-final on November 16.
"Everyone's first choice will be an India vs Pakistan semi-final at Eden Gardens, it would be a dream match," he added.
On the pitch, Ganguly said that the staff will go for a sporting wicket, which offers high-scoring contests and helps both bowlers and batters.
"In IPL, everyone enjoyed the match since they were high scoring and the wicket condition was good. We will try maintaining it," he added.
Ganguly said that a decision on tickets price will be taken in the next couple of days.
"We expect the crowd to come, we have a capacity of 65,000. Keeping this in mind, we will have a reasonable price," he added.
Lastly, he urged fans to come to the stadium to watch the matches or at least enjoy them live on TV. Ganguly said that the matches will be done smoothly with proper security for all during the Durga Puja days, which will take place during the duration of the tournament.
"Last time also during international matches, Kolkata police managed this festival and an international match well. They cooperated with us. We are confident that matches will be carried out in a big way, with proper security and safety," he said.
Ahmedabad will host the tournament opener as well as the final. The other venues are Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Dharamsala, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai and Pune. Guwahati and Thiruvananthapuram join Hyderabad in hosting the practice matches.
