Image Credit- ICC
Prior to the T20 World Cup in June, Eisenhower Park in
New York will not host any international matches since the pitch won’t be ready
until the end of May. Three of India’s matches in the forthcoming event are
expected to take place at this location.
The 20-team World Cup, which will be co-hosted in the
West Indies and the USA, will see ticket sales begin in two weeks, the
International Cricket Council (ICC) announced on Wednesday. The New York venue
will be the first modular stadium in cricket history.
The ICC recently shortlisted Eisenhower Park, situated
in Nassau County, Long Island, approximately 25 miles east of New York City,
along with Grand Prairie, Texas, and Broward County, Lauderhill, Florida, as
one of the three USA locations to hold 16 group phase matches. Eight of those
matches, including the June 9 India-Pakistan encounter, will take place at
Eisenhower Park.
The ICC has scheduled the testing phase of the
facility, including the drop-in pitches, for the second half of May, even
though the first game between South Africa and Sri Lanka is set for June 3 at
the New York site. It is most likely going to be the first big ICC event staged
at a location that has never hosted an international match.
However, the ICC is not at all concerned about such a
possibility. The head of events for the ICC, Chris Tetley, stated that the
testing phase, which will begin the week of May 13 and involve warm-up matches,
will give the organisers a greater understanding of the venue prior to the
World Cup matches commencing.
“There will be warm-up matches played at the
facility (New York) so that we know from a cricket perspective how the venue
runs,” Tetley said. “Also, importantly, we will know from an
operational perspective how all of the functional teams that will come together
to run the stadium need to interact on an event day with people coming through
the turnstiles.