
Picture Credit: Twitter
ODI World Cup 2023 schedule was released exactly 100 days before the start of the tournament (on 27th June) by International Cricket Council (ICC). But with the festivities around that time of the year, the Board of Control for Cricket in India and its state boards were juggling with some security concerns, looking to reschedule some of the matches. However, the new schedule of World Cup 2023 was released on 9th August, which saw nine games being rescheduled to different dates at same venue, one of them being India vs Pakistan.
The most anticipated match between India and Pakistan was initially scheduled to happen at Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad on 15th October, and was changed to 14th October citing security concerns due to the festival of Navratri. It was reported that 15th October 2023 will be first day of Navaratri, hence it will be impossible to give security for this match, leading to the change from 15th to 14th October.
Since India vs Pakistan got rescheduled a day earlier, Pakistan vs Sri Lanka which was initially scheduled on 12th October in Hyderabad also got changed to 10th October. Also, other games like ENG vs AFG, NZ vs BAN and AUS vs SA got re-scheduled to different dates as a result of this change.
Notably, Pakistan vs England also got rescheduled a day earlier to 11th November from 12th November, as 12th of November is a Kali Puja in Kolkata after concerns shown by the Cricket Board of Bengal (CAB). Once again considering the difficulties of security for this match, they rescheduled it earlier. As a result of this change, other games like IND vs NED, AUS vs BAN also saw a shuffle.