"Regrettably, Eden Gardens has not made sufficient progress to justify the level of confidence required to confirm that the venue would be ready in good time," Haroon Lorgat, the ICC chief executive, said. "This was no easy decision to take and while it is most unfortunate, it is absolutely necessary."
So, one more way has been discovered to hammer at Jagmohan Dalmiya and the CAB.This will probably be his last stint as an administrator and his opponents will make sure that he goes down as ‘the man who allowed the premier game in the WC to be taken away’.Thus Dalmiya will go to his grave with this tag while the opponent who lost to him by the historic casting vote will chortle with glee by having the last laugh…It is a win-win situation for the onion-price-riser.If the maych is taken away, Dalmiya will get the flak. If it is not, he will be the great saviour who has immensely more power than Jaggu-dada!!!!
Why do I think this is discrimination? Four other stadia in this lot of inspection have been granted extensions—in spite of crossing three deadlines like Kolkata—in the ’hope’ that they will complete the work in 14 days. Remembering that Kolkata will have double the size of work(as it is double the capacity of the other venues)—an equivalent construction time was necessary.
(Wankhede Stadium January)
Dalmiya has asked for ten days—i.e. 20 days before the match is held.Is that too much for the ICC to grant? After all the negative publicity about the Commonwealth Games, they were held with style and on time.Given the chance, I have no doubt that they will pull out the stops and hold the match with aplomb.After all, the CAB has an impeccable track record regarding hosting premier matches.With the prestige of the whole State at stake, everybody will respond to the crisis .
Also cancelling the match at this state will result in huge losses to so many persons who have booked tickets, made elaborate flight plans, planned their leave and arranged elaborate tour packages and conferences linked to this event.
Was the CAB negligent? Probably to a certain extent.They did not realize that getting the stadium ready 20 days before was such a rigid point.They were confident of holding the match but did not think that this final ICC sanction was so mandatory. This was a grave mistake. They should have realized that Kolkata always needs to be two steps advanced, where other areas can get away with only one. Moreover,this construction is an engineering project. The builders are Shapoorji Pallonji &Co.—one of the most respected builders in India and VMS Engineering and Design (Ahmedabad)—who are confident of finishing the job within the 7th of February. What is the CAB to do in this regard? Does Dalmia have to learn Construction work at his age?
_Ltd.vms.jpg)
Moreover, the CAB refused to give the excessive number of Hospitality Boxes demanded by the ICC. Rightly so. While all other places bent low to accommodate the greedy ICC officials, Dalmiya demanded adequate share for the local organizing committee (who do all the hard work) specially as the number of seats have been reduced. Moreover the structure of the commentary box was approved long before. Why is the ICC raising a hue and cry now??
All of this when so many venues in UK and New Zealand and Australia are still uncovered and have facilities far less than that of the Eden Gardens.
Adelaide Oval. Australia Note the stands!!!
The writing is clear. The ICC chief and other interested parties have ganged up as they did in the IPL with Saurav Ganguly to deny Kolkata and it’s fanatic fantastic cricket followers the opportunity to visually see and cheer the Indian team on!!!! However there is still time to rectify their mistake….
