The new 34,000-capacity stadium in New York will host the India-Pakistan match
By now, we know the success of a cricket World Cup depends heavily on India’s television eyeballs. The most anticipated match of the competition is the faceoff between India and Pakistan. Frosty relations between the two neighbours outside the cricket pitch gives the match that extra needle. Which is why no matter which corner of the globe the World Cup is staged, India matches are always on prime time at home and the India-Pakistan match is reserved for the stadium that holds the biggest crowd.
All those considerations have been factored in again for the June T20 World Cup in USA-West Indies. It’s just that the complexities involved – the geographical distance between the Indian sub-continent and the US and the absence of a cricketing culture and infrastructure in USA increases the challenge of making it work.(HT)