Kotla to lose 2011 WC hosting rights?

Zeecric Bureau

New Delhi: Feroz Shah Kotla stadium may lose the right to host the 2011 World Cup matches, or so claims the ICC Code of Conduct! The ICC Code of Conduct says that the immediate punishment for a venue that provided a pitch unfit for an international match could be the suspension of the venue’s international status for a period of 12-24 months. Also, for hosting any other international cricket match, the venue has to take a special permission from the ICC to be given the international status again. As per the ICC’s Code of Conduct, after the first occasion of a venue producing a pitch unfit for play the immediate punishment is, “A suspension of the venue’s international status for a period of between 12 and 24 months together with a directive for appropriate remedial action and the need for prior ICC re-accreditation as an international venue.” This norm now leaves the Kotla Stadium unsure of the hosting rights of the ICC World Cup matches to be played in 2011. The fifth and the final ODI between India and Sri Lanka played at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium here was abandoned on Sunday during to dangerous playing conditions. The pitch at the Feroz Shah Kotla stadium offered excessive bounce right from the starting of the match that reared up the deliveries alarmingly. One such delivery hit Tillakaratne Dilshan, who had to be later rushed to the hospital for the doctors to take a further look at his left forearm.