Jay Shah ensured Gujarat gets priority for cricket world cup matches: TMC

Trinamool Congress spokesperson Saket Gokhale has alleged that BCCI secretary Jay Shah, the son of Home Minister Amit Shah, has ensured that Gujarat gets priority over other states in choice of venues for the cricket World Cup scheduled to begin from October 5.

As the International Cricket Council (ICC) and host BCCI announced the World Cup schedule on Tuesday, some Opposition leaders hinted at political interference in scheduling, raising questions over Ahmedabad getting big-ticket matches while many states miss out.

"IPL 2023 opening match: Narendra Modi stadium; IPL 2023 Final: Narendra Modi stadium. Cricket World Cup 2023 opening match: Narendra Modi Stadium. Cricket World Cup 2023 Final: Narendra Modi stadium

"Jay Shah -- BCCI Secretary and son of Amit Shah -- ensures Gujarat gets priority always over other states," TMC spokesperson Saket Gokhale said in a tweet on Wednesday.

The chosen venues include Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Dharamsala, Delhi, Chennai, Lucknow, Pune, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Kolkata. The established cricket centres that have missed out include Mohali, Indore, Rajkot, Ranchi and Nagpur.

Though it is an ICC event, the world body tends to go with venues proposed by the local organising committee, which is the BCCI in this case.