Uncertainty hangs over World T20

Tickets yet to go on sale, while venues and teams remain a doubt .

NEW DELHI: Storm clouds continue to gather over cricket’s World T20, with organisers still to release tickets or confirm the venues, less than a month before the tournament begins in India.

Hundreds of thousands of supporters are expected to attend the 16-team contest which begins from March 8, the first time India are hosting the event.



But with question marks over the presence of the West Indies, and New Delhi yet to receive clearance to host matches, fans who need to secure flights, hotels and even visas are still unable to firm up travel plans.

The official line from the Indian board is that any glitches will be ironed out and there is no cause for alarm.

“Everything will be sorted out very soon,” Anurag Thakur, secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), told AFP.

But Paul Ford, co-founder of New Zealand’s Beige Brigade fan club, said it was now simply too late for some fans. “We would have loved to travel to India as New Zealand have a good team this time round,” he said. “But the delay in ticket sales and the venue being undecided has really made it hard for fans to plan their travel.”

Tickets for other major sporting events in 2016 such as the Rio Olympics in August and football’s Euros in June went on sale months ago.

Thakur told reporters last Friday that tickets would be released at the start of this week, a month before the first matches involving the tournament’s minnows.



But that deadline came and went and organisers have set next Monday as their new target, a month before India play New Zealand in the first heavyweight clash.

The delay can be explained in part by the uncertainty over whether New Delhi’s Firoz Shah Kotla stadium will receive all the permits needed to stage its four matches — including the first semi-final.

While Delhi High Court indicated it was likely to give the green light, it also left open the possibility that it would not make a final decision for almost three weeks. The BCCI says it has drawn up a Plan B without revealing which venues might step in.

Another crisis is brewing in the Caribbean where a pay dispute shows little sign of being resolved before a February 14 deadline for players to sign contracts drawn up by the West Indies board.



While it appears unlikely the West Indies will boycott the event, its credibility would take a major hit if stars such as Chris Gayle stay at home and are replaced by second-stringers.

2009 winners Pakistan have also voiced concerns about security in India while stopping short of threatening a boycott.

The South Asian arch-rivals have not played a bilateral series for more than three years amid diplomatic tensions, but they are due to play each other on March 19 in the Himalayan town of Dharamsala.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 12^th, 2016.

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