ICC team carries out venue inspection for Mohali WT20 ties

The International Cricket Council (ICC) today gave a thumbs up to the facilities at the PCA Stadium here which will be hosting some matches of next year’s ICC World Twenty20 Championships.

Led by ICC head of events, Chris Tetley, and BCCI Tournament Director M V Sridhar, a joint team which arrived here last night, reached the stadium in the morning.

They carried out an inspection of the venue and held meetings with PCA officials.

“The ICC-BCCI joint team arrived at the venue in the morning to carry out the inspection. They went around the stadium. They appeared to be quite happy with the overall maintenance, facilities and security aspects.

“No shortcoming was pointed out. They were happy with overall set up. The only thing which they wanted was that there should be smooth changeover when Mohali hosts a double header of the event,” venue manager and PCA’s CEO, Brigadier G S Sandhu (retd) told PTI.

Among the matches which Mohali will host are Pakistan taking on Australia on March 25 and the double-header on March 27 between West Indies and India (women) and India vs Australia (men).

Sandhu said the team held a detailed meeting with security officials, “which was headed by IGP, Kuldeep Singh. The security team reviewed everything, they were quite happy.”

Before heading to Dharamsala, where they will be inspecting the venue tomorrow morning, the joint team spent close to five hours at the Mohali venue.

PCA spokesman Sushil Kapoor said among those who were part of the joint team included security, broadcasting, merchandising and other officials.

“The team went around the ground and expressed satisfaction with the ground, preparations, dressing rooms, stands, upkeep and cleanliness of the stadium,” Kapoor said.

When asked to comment about today’s inspection, Sridhar said it was carried as per routine before the mega-events.

“Everyone was quite happy with the facilities here. There is no problem at all,” Sridhar told PTI.