ICC World Cup 2023 Schedule To Be Tweaked Again After Hyderabad Cricket Association Request?

ICC World Cup 2023 schedule may once again be tweaked after report surfaces of Hyderabad Cricket Association's request to Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to change the dates of one of the two back-to-back matches due to security concerns.

HCA's home venue - Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Hyderabad is set to host three World Cup matches in October. But after the ICC and BCCI rescheduled a few matches, the Hyderabad venue is now scheduled to host back-to-back matches on October 9 and October 10.

Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad will host three matches of ICC World Cup 2023

The Rajiv Gandhi Stadium in Uppal will host the Pakistan vs Netherlands match on October 6 followed by New Zealand vs Netherlands match on October 9, with the Pakistan vs Sri Lanka fixture scheduled the next day.

Hyderabad was originally scheduled to host matches on October 6, October 9 and October 12, but due to the schedule change and to provide Pakistan with enough gap between their matches, the venue in Hyderabad will now host matches October 6, October 9 and October 10.

According to a report from Indian Express, HCA has now written to the BCCI asking for a gap between two games, which it's now scheduled to host on consecutive days after Hyderabad Police has raised concerns over providing security for back-to-back games.

The BCCI and ICC were forced to rejig the World Cup 2023 schedule after several state associations wrote to the Indian cricket board raising concerns over seucrity, especially the India vs Pakistan fixture which was originally scheduled for October 15, the first day of Navaratri, a big festival in the country.

Earlier this month, the ICC and BCCI announced that nine matches, including the India vs Pakistan match were rescheduled. This also saw the Pakistan vs Sri Lanka match being moved to an earlier date instead of October 12.

The ICC World Cup 2023 is scheduled to be held across ten venues from October 5 to November 19. Now, with just under 50 days left for the event and tickets for the Hyderabad matches set to go on sale on August 25, it will be interesting to see if the schedule is changed once again.

But with only one game possibly being needed to be moved, there may be no big issue. However, any change will be need to be made in the coming days as the tickets go on sale at the venue in just five days time.