ICC World Cup 2023: Who earned Kolkata the Semifinal? Journalist reveals 'Most Powerful Person' did

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The ICC World Cup 2023 schedule was released on Tuesday (June 27). The global extravaganza will be starting on October 5 and will continue till November 19.

India, the hosts of this edition of the ODI World Cup, is set to conduct to tournament across ten venues. The tournament opener and Final will be played at the iconic Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, whereas Mumbai and Kolkata will host two semifinals.

But initially, there were talks regarding one of the semifinals being held in either Chennai or Bangalore. But later, Eden Gardens snatched it away from the two southern cities and will be hosting the 3rd knockout match in World Cup history.

Eden Gardens hosted the 1987 Final, and also was the venue of the infamous 1996 semi-final, in which India lost the match against Sri Lanka.

But despite being down the pecking order of semifinal hosts, what reinvigorated Eden Gardens as the prime contender as hosts? Journalist Boria Majumdar revealed two persons who played a major part in handing Kolkata the World Cup semifinal.

The journalist reckons BCCI secretary Jay Shah played a major role in the semifinal going to Kolkata's direction.

"How did Eden Gardens come to the fray? Two people who made it happen, Jay Shah, clearly the most powerful man in world cricket at the moment and leading the BCCI as secretary. Jay Shah had the most critical role in giving this match to the Eden Gardens," Boria said to RevSportz.

But apart from that, Boria also credited CAB president Snehasis Ganguly, who reportedly convinced the BCCI secretary to hand it to Kolkata.

"For the last four months, Snehasis Ganguly has been in touch and liaison with Jay Shah," Majumdar added on the video.

The report also said there was a meeting yesterday where the BCCI secretary assured Snehasis Ganguly of the final decision.

In 2011, Eden Gardens didn't get a single India match or any knockout matches. This time, the iconic Kolkata ground has five matches and will also host India's match against South Africa.

Moreover, the report also claimed if India and Pakistan meet in the semifinals, that match will also take place in Eden Gardens. Pakistan wished to not play in any of the North and West India stadiums, hence the match will be moved to Kolkata if Pakistan and India meet at that stage.