Bhubaneswar: It’s good news for cricket lovers of Odisha, Cuttack’s Barabati Stadium will be hosting one of the five T20 matches India will be playing with the South Africa team across the country in June, shortly after the completion of IPL 2022.
The BCCI has already confirmed that the IPL will be held in Mumbai and Pune from March 26 to May 29 and just about 10 days later, the T20 series against Proteas will begin.
The Apex Council of the BCCI, which met on Wednesday decided on the schedule for the South Africa series and matches are likely to be held from June 9 to 19. During the meeting, the venues were also finalized and Cuttack, Vizag, Delhi, Rajkot and Chennai will host the matches, a Cricbuzz report said.
The report also stated that Bengaluru and Nagpur were to get the games in the series but Cuttack and Vizag have been allotted the matches instead, presumably because the two centres missed out on the T20 matches during recent West Indies series.
Notably, the BCCI conducted the six matches against West Indies in only two centres — Ahmedabad and Kolkata — with an aim to cut down on travel and Covid-19 threat.
The Apex Council has also factored in the weather conditions in the country around June and according to information gathered by the board managers (placed before the meeting), there may be slight rain for the first game in Cuttack (as is the seasonal norm in that part of the world at that time of the year).
For the second game in Vizag, there is less chance of rain while warm conditions are expected in the other three centres – Delhi, Rajkot and Chennai – during those games.
After the South Africa series, Team India will fly to England for an unfinished Test and six white-ball matches.
(With inputs from IANS)
