Vijay Hazare Trophy 2017/18: BCCI turns down DDCA's request for change of venue

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has rejected the idea of Delhi District Cricket Association (DDCA) to play its quarterfinal game at Feroz Shah Kotla stadium, at its home ground, a report in The Indian Express suggests.

Delhi qualified for the knockouts from Group B, a group whose quarterfinal matches are to be played at Palam A stadium.

Since the team wanted to play at its home ground, it proposed a request in front of BCCI, which was rejected,

“Since the knock-outs are taking place in New Delhi, we should be playing at our home ground in Feroz Shah Kotla,” Shankar Saini, Delhi’s manager told the Indian Express.

“Teams in the past have played at home to gain an advantage. We have written to the BCCI asking them to shift our venue,” he added.

Saba Karim, the newly appointed General Manager of the Board, said that there was no question of shifting the game to Kotla,

“The venues for the knock-outs have already been decided. There’s no question of a shift now,” he maintains.

“The idea is to have these games (the knock-out games) at neutral venues. In any case, if Delhi wins the quarter-final, they can play at Kotla, which is the venue for the semi-final,” he added.

Delhi will now have to play their knockout game at Palam A stadium. They will face Andhra Pradesh on February 22.

Earlier, the knockout contests were to be played at Ekana Stadium in Lucknow.

A state function in the city at the same time resulted in venue shift. The city does not have a number of hotels to accommodate many parties at the same time.

The two quarterfinal games that will be played at Kotla between Hyderabad-Karnataka and Saurashtra-Baroda. If Delhi wins their quarterfinal game, they will play the semifinal at Kotla.

Both as both the semifinals and the final are to be played at the iconic venue. Meanwhile, DDCA has announced the squad for the knockout contest.

Gautam Gambhir has made a comeback to the side after being declared fit to participate. He missed the league stage round due to an ankle injury.

Manjot Kalra, the U19 World Cup winner, has been put on standby. Delhi’s Ranji Trophy campaign star, Himmat Singh, has made his comeback to the List A side. Along with him, Harsh Tyagi has also been called to the team in place of Manan Sharma.

Delhi Squad: Ishant Sharma (captain), Gautam Gambhir, Unmukt Chand, Rishabh Pant, Nitish Rana, Hiten Dalal, Dhruv Shorey, Lalit Yadav, Kulwant Khejroliya, Pradeep Sangwan, Navdeep Saini, Pawan Negi, Harsh Tyagi, Himmat Singh, Milind Kumar. Stand by: Manjot Kalra.

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