NEW DELHI: The World Twenty20 match between arch rivals India and Pakistan has been shifted from the northern Indian hill town of Dharamsala at the last minute after Pakistan expressed security concerns, organisers said Wednesday.
International Cricket Council Chief Executive David Richardson announced that the hotly awaited clash on March 19 would be shifted to Kolkata in eastern India, hosts of the World T20 which kicked off this week.
"The safety and security of the event is of paramount importance to the ICC and we have taken into consideration the concerns shared with us by our security advisors as well as the Pakistan Cricket Board," Richardson told a press conference in New Delhi.
But it was unclear whether Pakistan would travel to India to take part in the tournament even after the venue switch, with its cricket board saying it was still awaiting security assurances from the Indian government.
"The team's departure - men and women - will remain pending until the Indian government gives assurances... Once we get assurances from India then we will ask our government for clearance," Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Shahryar Khan told a press conference in Lahore.
Khan did not give a deadline for the assurances.
Pakistan had delayed their departure for neighbouring India earlier Wednesday citing concerns about threats from Hindu religious extremists against the team.
Pakistan sent a security assessment team to India on Monday after voicing repeated concerns about arrangements for the month-long tournament.
Richardson said he was now "hopeful" that Pakistan would take part. "We have just conveyed our decision to Pakistan and we are very hopeful they will come," he said.
Pakistan are due to play their opening match against a first-round qualifier in Kolkata on March 16.
They had been set to meet India on March 19 in Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh state, where locals have objected to the staging of the match and threatened to hold protests against their neighbours.
Last week state chief minister Virbhadra Singh caused a stir by refusing to provide security for the game, prompting the PCB to demand the match be shifted to a new venue.
India-Pakistan showdowns usually draw hundreds of millions of television viewers, making it the biggest box office attraction in the sport.
But diplomatic tensions have meant that the two teams have not played any bilateral series for more than three years, and their rivalry is restricted to multi-national tournaments such as the World T20.
Fans would be given a full refund to the Dharamsala match or a ticket to watch the one in Kolkata, Richardson said.
He said the decision to switch the venue was not unprecedented, adding that he was confident of a successful tournament.
"ICC has not lost faith in India. There are huge logistical challenges. There are 59 matches in total across eight venues," he said.
"India is a big and complicated country in many respects. There are challenges with every ICC event. It's not unprecedented."
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India-Pakistan T20 match shifted over security worries
India-Pakistan T20 match shifted over security worries
Football returns to Gaza pitch scarred by war and loss
- Fans gather to cheer the first football tournament in two years in the ruins of Gaza City’s Tal Al-Hawa district
- 'No matter what happened in terms of destruction and genocidal war, we continue with playing,' Gazan footballer says
On a worn-out five-a-side pitch in a wasteland of ruined buildings and rubble, Jabalia Youth took on Al-Sadaqa in the Gaza Strip’s first organized football tournament in more than two years.
The match ended in a draw, as did a second fixture featuring Beit Hanoun vs Al-Shujaiya. But the spectators were hardly disappointed, cheering and shaking the chain-link fence next to the Palestine Pitch in the ruins of Gaza City’s Tal Al-Hawa district.
Boys climbed a broken concrete wall or peered through holes in the ruins to get a look. Someone was banging on a drum.
Youssef Jendiya, 21, one of the Jabalia Youth players from a part of Gaza largely depopulated and bulldozed by Israeli forces, described his feeling at being back on the pitch: “Confused. Happy, sad, joyful, happy.”
“People search for water in the morning: food, bread. Life is a little difficult. But there is a little left of the day, when you can come and play football and express some of the joy inside you,” he said.
“You come to the stadium missing many of your teammates... killed, injured, or those who traveled for treatment. So the joy is incomplete.”
Four months since a ceasefire ended major fighting in Gaza, there has been almost no reconstruction. Israeli forces have ordered all residents out of nearly two-thirds of the strip, jamming more than 2 million people into a sliver of ruins along the coast, most in makeshift tents or damaged buildings.
The former site of Gaza City’s 9,000-seat Yarmouk Stadium, which Israeli forces levelled during the war and used as a detention center, now houses displaced families in white tents, crowded in the brown dirt of what was once the pitch.
For this week’s tournament the Football Association managed to clear the rubble from a collapsed wall off a half-sized pitch, put up a fence and sweep the debris off the old artificial turf.
By coming out, the teams were “delivering a message,” said Amjad Abu Awda, 31, a player for Beit Hanoun. “That no matter what happened in terms of destruction and genocidal war, we continue with playing, and with life. Life must continue.”
The match ended in a draw, as did a second fixture featuring Beit Hanoun vs Al-Shujaiya. But the spectators were hardly disappointed, cheering and shaking the chain-link fence next to the Palestine Pitch in the ruins of Gaza City’s Tal Al-Hawa district.
Boys climbed a broken concrete wall or peered through holes in the ruins to get a look. Someone was banging on a drum.
Youssef Jendiya, 21, one of the Jabalia Youth players from a part of Gaza largely depopulated and bulldozed by Israeli forces, described his feeling at being back on the pitch: “Confused. Happy, sad, joyful, happy.”
“People search for water in the morning: food, bread. Life is a little difficult. But there is a little left of the day, when you can come and play football and express some of the joy inside you,” he said.
“You come to the stadium missing many of your teammates... killed, injured, or those who traveled for treatment. So the joy is incomplete.”
Four months since a ceasefire ended major fighting in Gaza, there has been almost no reconstruction. Israeli forces have ordered all residents out of nearly two-thirds of the strip, jamming more than 2 million people into a sliver of ruins along the coast, most in makeshift tents or damaged buildings.
The former site of Gaza City’s 9,000-seat Yarmouk Stadium, which Israeli forces levelled during the war and used as a detention center, now houses displaced families in white tents, crowded in the brown dirt of what was once the pitch.
For this week’s tournament the Football Association managed to clear the rubble from a collapsed wall off a half-sized pitch, put up a fence and sweep the debris off the old artificial turf.
By coming out, the teams were “delivering a message,” said Amjad Abu Awda, 31, a player for Beit Hanoun. “That no matter what happened in terms of destruction and genocidal war, we continue with playing, and with life. Life must continue.”
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