The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is likely to send a security team to India to assess the arrangements ahead of the ICC Men’s World Cup 2023, ARY News reported on Saturday.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) announced the anticipated schedule of the Men’s World Cup 2023 last week, creating a buzz around the highly anticipated Pakistan vs India clash.
The arch-rivals are set to face each other on October 15 at the renowned Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, which happens to be the largest cricket stadium in the world.
However, unlike the other nine participating teams, Pakistan will only play matches at five venues across the country, while the remaining teams will compete across the ten venues selected for the tournament.
In a recent development, it has been reported that the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is likely to send a security team to India to assess the arrangements ahead of the World Cup.
The Pakistani government intends to approve Babar Azam and his team’s participation only after the security team has visited all the venues and submitted a report to the board.
The security team from PCB is scheduled to visit all five venues including Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, and Kolkata.
It is worth mentioning here that Pakistan had initially expressed reservations about playing matches at specific venues and they had raised this concern with the International Cricket Council (ICC).
This delay in announcing the schedule was attributed to the discussions and negotiations regarding venue preferences. However, the schedule was finally revealed on June 27 with key BCCI and ICC office-bearers in attendance along with legends Virender Sehwag and Muttiah Muralitharan.
The former PCB chief Najam Sethi had previously highlighted the board’s request to the ICC regarding Pakistan vs India match being held at the Narendra Modi Stadium. However, the request was denied, and the schedule allocated the same venue for this much-anticipated match.
It is worth noting that after months of deliberation, the PCB agreed to forego hosting the Asia Cup, which was originally intended to include matches against India. The Pakistani board has expressed mixed feelings about the tournament being played in a hybrid model.