Lorgat happy with Eden, but no India match for World Cup

NEW DELHI - International Cricket Council (ICC) chief executive Haroon Lorgat said Tuesday that the world body was happy with the progress of work at the Eden Gardens, but ruled out the possibility of Kolkata hosting the India-Ireland match.

“We have received encouraging reports from Kolkata and we are confident that the Eden Gardens will host the remaining three matches,” said Lorgat.

The India-England match slated in Kolkata for Feb 27 was shifted to Bangalore due to unpreparedness of Eden Gardens. The stadium will now host its first World Cup match March 15 between South Africa and Ireland.

Asked if there is a possibility of Kolkata exchanging the India-Ireland match with Bangalore, which will now host two India matches, Lorgat said: “We have not received any request. But it will be difficult because of logistics. Practically I don’t think it is possible.”

On the shadow of match-fixing in the World Cup, Lorgat said ICC has “zero tolerance” towards corruption and has a strong system in place to check graft during the tournament.

“It’s an unfortunate reality but greed is not restricted to any particular city. We have measures in place to ensure that such things are snuffed out. We have zero tolerance towards corruption in sports. We have to bring the perpetrators to book,” he said.

Lorgat also revealed that the ICC will be deploying its Anti-Corruption Security Unit (ACSU) officers to check any untoward incident.

“We have prepared well and will deploy more people. Yesterday and today the whole staff of ACSU assembled and prepared a strategy. We can handle any situation. If needed, we will deploy additional officials,” he said.

He also reiterated that betting should be legalised in India.

“If betting syndicates are legalised then it will be easy to regulate. When it is not regulated it will go underground. If betting is legalised then it will be far easier to manage the issue of temptation towards corruption. In countries like Australia, England, there is a regulatory industry,” he said.

Asked if not using the Hot Spot in the Umpires Decision Review System (UDRS) will be a setback for the ICC, Lorgat said: “I won’t call it a setback, because the other techniques available are good enough to run the Umpires’ Decision Review System which will definitely reduce the errors in decisions. We were aware of the fact that there were not enough Hot Spot cameras that could have been deployed for all matches.”