- The latest reports say that the final match will be played in Ahmedabad ground—the world’s largest cricket ground.
- Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Dharamsala, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Lucknow, Indore, Rajkot and Mumbai have been shortlisted for other matches of the World Cup 2023.
Lahore: The 2023 ODI World Cup is expected to start on October 5 and end on November 19, the latest reports said on Wednesday.
The BCCI which is the host of the mega event shortlisted at least a dozen venues , with the final due to be played at Ahmedabad’s cricket stadium—which is the largest cricket ground in the world.
Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Dharamsala, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Lucknow, Indore, Rajkot and Mumbai are among the other places shortlisted for the world cup matches.
CricInfo reported that the tournament would be comprising 48 matches including three knockouts across the 46-day period.
It said that the Indian Cricket Board did not specify venue for any games as yet or the two or three cities where the teams would play the warm-up matches. The monsoon season became the major reason behind delay in finalizing the venues in India.
Unlike the previous schedule, the ICC has also been still waiting for BCCI for necessary clearance from the Indian government. The clearance includes two key issues: getting a tax exemption for the tournament, and visa clearance for the Pakistan team, which has not played in India except at ICC events since early 2013.
The BCCI, at the ICC’s quarterly meetings last weekend held in Dubai, is learned to have assurance the international cricket body that the visas for Pakistan contingent would be cleared by the Indian government.
As far as the tax exemption is concerned, the BCCI is likely to inform the ICC soon on the exaction position of the Indian government. The tax exemption is the part of the host’s agreement the BCCI signed with the ICC in 2014, when three men’s events were awarded to India: the 2016 T20 World Cup, the 2018 Champions Trophy (later changed to 2021 T20 World Cup, which was moved to the UAE and Oman due to the pandemic) and the 2023 ODI World Cup.
According to the agreement, the BCCI was bound to help the ICC (and all its commercial partners involved in the tournament) secure tax waivers.
The ICC last year was informed by the Indian tax authorities that it would be charged a 20% tax order (excluding surcharges) for its broadcast revenue from the 2023 World Cup. In a note distributed to its members – state associations – the BCCI pointed out that any tax “incurred” by ICC would be “adjusted” against the Indian board’s revenues from ICC’s central revenue pool.
In the note, the BCCI listed the ICC’s estimated broadcasting income from the 2023 World Cup at USD 533.29 million. It said the “financial impact” it would suffer for a 10.92% tax order on that would be around UDS 58.23 million (the BCCI’s note listed the figure as USD 52.23 million, which appears to be an error given the percentages listed). That would more than double to roughly USD 116.47 million if the tax component were to be 21.84%, as desired by the Indian tax authorities.
