‘Yeh itna kyu rota hai’ -Fans react as Punjab Sports minister vents out anger at Mohali not getting any games in 2023 ODI World Cup
Mohali and Dharamshala were home grounds for Punjab Kings in IPL 2023.
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Jun 28, 2023 12:26 pm
Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer (Source: Twitter)
The schedule for the 2023 ODI World Cup was released on Tuesday. With less than 100 days to go before the big event in India, Indian fans breathed a huge sigh of relief when the schedule came out. But on the other side, there were some strong reactions with regard to the schedule from other quarters. Speaking on the schedule, Punjab sports minister Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer has launched a scathing attack at the Indian Cricket Board after Mohali not being allotted any World Cup matches.
In a press conference released on Wednesday, Hayer said the exclusion of Mohali as a venue for World Cup matches was open discrimination against Punjab. He said it was for the first time after the construction of the PCA Stadium in Mohali that no World Cup match would be held here. He said it was a shame that no match was allotted to Punjab and that in the 1996 quarterfinal and also in 2011 when India played against Pakistan.
The Punjab CM will raise the issue with Indian Cricket Board – Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer
“While strongly condemning the exclusion of Mohali from the list of host cities in the schedule released for the ODI Cricket #WorldCup2023 to be held in India in the month of October-November this year as being motivated by political reasons. He said that the State Govt led by CM @BhagwantMann will raise the issue of this discrimination and open injustice with the Indian Cricket Board.” Meet Hayer said.
According to his claims, he felt there was some politics involved which led to Mohali not getting the hosting rights of World Cup games. “It is good that World Cup is coming to India, but it is sad that a stadium which has produced many superstars of Indian cricket, a stadium that used to be among the top five venues in the country, has not got a single game. On the other hand, the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad is hosting the opening game as well as the final and also the big game between India and Pakistan,” The Punjab Sports minister further said.
He did not end his fierce volley of words there, as he added saying, “To the neighbouring Dharamsala as well, you are giving them five games, but Punjab has not got even one. That makes it clear that politics is being played,” Notably, both Mohali and Dharamshala played host to the Punjab Kings in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 edition.
Let us take a look at the reactions on Twitter:
Surprising that grounds like Lucknow are given precedence over Mohali
Dharamshala although has lower seating capacity but the boost to local tourism from international tourists in an off season is the reason for Dharamshala hosting a sizeable number of matches
These guys don't know revenue generated in Ahmedabad because of these matches. Here we have 100k+ crowd capacity and minimum ticket price will be around 800-1000. I'm only talking about cheaper seats. Premium seats go upto 50k-60k or more. No other stadium can generate this much
Then what about Hyderabad man we are the best sports lover in our country and even in busy hours if any Indian match is there most of the people will come to stadium 🏟️ and cheer for our team but sadly there is not a single Indian match is there for us and did we cry on it
