The immense popularity of cricket in India is giving the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee sleepless nights. OC chairman Suresh Kalmadi on Friday sought the intervention on the sports ministry to convince the Board of Control for Cricket in India to reschedule India’s two-match Tests series against Australia to avoid a clash with the 11-day extravaganza.
Australia will play two Tests and three one-dayers between October 2 to 24 in India. Kalmadi has written to sports minister M.S. Gill requesting him to convince the BCCI not to organise any international matches during the October 3 to 14 CWG in Delhi.
“I seek to write to your good offices to try and convince BCCI to reschedule the two Test matches between India and Australia, now slated to start on October 2 in Mohali and October 10 in Bengaluru so that cricket matches do not clash with the Commonwealth Games,” Kalmadi wrote in his letter to Gill.
“I am sure you will use your good offices to convince BCCI to reschedule the cricket series,” the Indian Olympic Association president said.
Although, Delhi is not slated to hold any international matches — serving a one-year ICC ban — the OC is concerned that TV ratings might drop significantly with two top cricketing nations facing off in India.
“I need not stress the importance of not having any international cricket series in India during the CWG. I had written to Mr Sharad Pawar as early as on July 1, 2009, seeking due consideration by the BCCI to ensure that it does not schedule any major cricket matches during this period,” Kalmadi added.
The BCCI, on its part, remained non-committal on the issue.
“We have not recieved any request or letter from the IOA or the sport ministry. The matter could have been considered had we got some official communication,” BCCI secretary N. Srinivasan said on Friday.
However, Board sources indicate that there is no scope of rescheduling any match. “The FTP is water-tight and it is not possible to make any changes to it. The Australians were supposed to tour for seven ODIs but we convinced them to play two Tests instead. Now there is no question of a further change since the schedule has been arrived at after a lot of deliberation,” a Board source confirmed.
OC vice-chairman Randhir Singh feels the cricket board should be more considerate towards their request. “The event is a matter of pride for the country. It’s only a matter of few days, they can always push back the Tests till after the CWG,” Randhir said.
Australia will begin the month-long tour with a three-day practice match in Mohali from September 27 to 29. The two Tests are scheduled at Mohali (October 2 to 6) and Bengaluru (October 10 to 14), while the three one-dayers will be held in Kochi (October 19), Goa (October 22) and Visakhapatnam (October 24).
This will be followed by New Zealand coming for three Tests in November. India then leave for South Africa in December.