On August 9 the ICC and BCCI finally announced the revised, and hopefully final, schedule for the "ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2023", which will begin on October 5. Normally such an announcement so close to an event might offer the sport's fans a reason for the delay and express regret for any inconvenience caused.
The question of expressing regret, however, doesn't arise in this case. What inconvenience can a change in schedule - no matter how late - cause to a fan if tickets haven't gone on sale yet?
Tickets for the 2023 ODI World Cup will be available to the public only from August 25, 41 days before the first match. To know how you can buy these tickets, please register with the ICC website from August 15. What we know so far is that if you are travelling to India to watch India play, or your team take on India, you will have to wait until August 31 to September 3 to try to get a ticket.
This timeline makes it extremely difficult for fans from countries that can't get an India visa without producing a confirmed itinerary. It won't be a cakewalk for those who want to travel from within the country either. Flights and hotel rooms are already exorbitantly priced around key match dates. And if you book travel and stay without a confirmed match ticket, you could end up at the mercy of touts and other agencies offering even more expensive packages. There is distinct possibility now that matches not involving India might be played in front of relatively poor crowds.
If the ten-team format didn't already make the tournament exclusivist, the possibility of poor representation of travelling fans might make you question the "world" in the "ICC Men's Cricket World Cup".
What about the "ICC" part then? The Men's 50-over World Cup is the ICC's flagship event, but the governing body has been virtually absent - at least in the public eye - while the BCCI delayed finalising the schedule and ticketing to an unprecedented degree. The ICC CEO, Geoff Allardice, practically expressed helplessness on BBC's Test Match Special during the World Test Championship final this June. He said he hadn't seen the schedule at the time but hoped to announce it "as soon as we possibly can".
Eventually, the schedule was announced with 100 days to go to the first match (and revised 43 days later). Forty-nine days later, we will reach a stage where the public can register on the ICC website to receive news and updates about tickets. Ten days after that tickets will go up for sale.
In the absence of an official explanation for the late change in schedule, you can believe one of two reasons. First that two of Pakistan's matches coincided with big festivals in Ahmedabad and Kolkata, and local police expressed their inability to provide adequate security for both the festival and the cricket. When these matches were moved, it had a ripple effect on other fixtures.
The second reason was offered by BCCI honorary secretary Jay Shah during a press conference in Delhi on July 27: "If security was an issue then why would the match go there [to Ahmedabad]?" he said. "[October] 14-15 is not the problem. Two or three boards have written in, asking to change based on the logistical challenges. There are some matches where there is only a two-day gap, so it will be difficult to play and then travel the next day [and then play again]."
If it is the latter reason, it is extremely accommodating of the BCCI to entertain such late requests from boards after they had signed off on the original schedule.
We don't know who is answerable for the delays because we don't know for sure whether this World Cup has a tournament director or an organising committee. Sources within the ICC and BCCI say Hemang Amin, the acting BCCI CEO for three years now, is the tournament director but there is no public record of such an appointment. Some others in the two bodies aren't even aware of such an appointment. The latest announcement identifies Amin as the "CEO of the BCCI".
There was no such ambiguity around the 2019 World Cup in England. In July 2016 - three years before the event - both ICC and ECB appointed Steve Elworthy, a veteran of three ICC tournaments already, the managing director of the World Cup. He went on to form a local organising committee, which is a combination of the host board and ICC officials. They are the people responsible and accountable for delivering a successful World Cup.
If it is the first reason - date clash with festivals - the BCCI might deserve some benefit of doubt. No organisation wants to sabotage its own event. While festival dates are known well in advance, Indian bureaucracy can sometimes spring surprises on the BCCI. Then again, this is precisely why World Cups are planned well in advance. Brushing off these delays as an "Indian thing" will be a grave disservice to past BCCI administrations. For the 2011 World Cup, the BCCI appointed a public-facing tournament director, the experienced Ratnakar Shetty, and an organising committee well in advance. The first batch of tickets went on sale as early as June 2010.
Perhaps the presence of Sri Lanka and Bangladesh as co-hosts helped push matters along in 2011. Almost like how coalition governments work better. To stretch the analogy, the mandate for the current BCCI administration is absolute, and power is heavily centralised with honorary office bearers, a complete departure from the Lodha Committee recommendations to make the functioning of the board more professional and transparent.
Not to tempt fate, but the actual cricket during the World Cup should go smoothly. In all likelihood the pitches, outfields and dressing rooms will be perfect, the needs of the broadcasters will be fulfilled, and the teams will be well looked after. The people working on the ground are too experienced to mess that up.
Neither the ICC nor the BCCI seemed anxious or apologetic about the schedule or ticketing delay because their bottom line will remain unaffected. The ICC will produce a fabulous broadcast and get its revenue. It doesn't seem to see this as an impediment to its ambition of globalising the game and taking cricket to the Olympics. The BCCI will sell out all India matches, and will carry on as it does. Politicians, film stars, and privileged people willing to pay will get in to watch matches. Only the regular cricket fan will suffer.
Only the regular cricket fan.