Dharamshala may get World Cup Matches: Official

Dharamshala, February 15, 2023: The senior official of HPCA Sanjay Sharma said that due to the long monsoon season in Dharamsala the HPCA’s cricket stadium’s grassy outfield could not be completed in time resulting in the shifting of the 3rd test match between India and Australia from Dharamsala to Nagpur. 

Speaking to media Sharma said that HPCA was relaying a world class outfield in Dharamsala Cricket Stadium so that the matches could be played here with negligible interruption of the rain. “We started the relaying of outfield work in June     2022. But due to a lengthy Monsoon the growth of the grass cover was slowed down, as we have shifted the base of grass in the outfield from soil base to sand base,” said Sharma. He added that the HPCA was continuously in touch with BCCI about the slow growth of grass and finally the mutual decision of the shifting of the 5 days international game was taken.

“This is not the end of cricket here, the ODI world cup for men is in the pipeline and we are sure that Dharamsala will have a few games “said Sanjay. (The ODI world cup is scheduled to be held in India in October November this year.)

He said that with the efforts of the Union Minister for Sports Anurag Thakur Dharamsala had so many international games here and apart from that many IPL and Corporate Matches were also staged here in the past 15 years or so, which boosted the tourism of Himachal and particularly that of Dharamshala.

Prashant, a hotelier in Dharamsala said that around 90 % of the hotel accommodation was already booked for India - Australia Test match which was to be staged here in the first week of March, but the cancellation of this match disappointed the hoteliers and taxi operators too. Sharad Garg, an industrialist from Noida said, “We are the regular spectators of Dharamsala matches but the shifting of the match from Dharamshala to Nagpur has disappointed us.”