As the schedule of World Cup was announced on Tuesday, the Nagpurians were shocked as they did not find the name of Orange City in the list of venues that would be holding the one day fixtures. As far as city World Cup history is concerned for the first time the city hosted India-New Zealand match in 1987at the VCA’s Civil Lines Stadium After this, in 1996 and 2011, Nagpur bagged the opportunities to host World Cup ties.
In the 2016 T20 World Cup, Nagpur hosted nearly a dozen matches, including practice matches for the men’s and women's teams. But in the 2023 edition of ODI World Cup, the citizens were surprised to see Nagpur being excluded from the list of venues.
Former Maharashtra sports minister and current MLA Anil Deshmukh has shot off a letter to BCCI secretary Jay Shah and demnded that considering the anger among the cricket lovers, at least two to three matches should be alloted to Nagpur city. “ Nagpur has world class stadium at Jamtha and it has consistently hosted the international matches including World Cup in the past. But this time the citizens are shocked that Nagpur has been excluded as world cup venue”.
MLA Vikas Thakre said , “ The city has successfully hosted number of international matches including IPL in the past. In fact we have state-of-the-art cricket stadium in the city. Therefore it is their wish that this time also city should host any World Cup 2023 match. There is nothing wrong in it. But we don't know the exact reason behind exclusion of Nagpur as World Cup venue.”
Former mayor Sandip Joshi has different opinion. He said, “ It would have been great had Nagpur allotted some matches but its ok. Not a big issue. There are 52 to 55 cricket stadiums in the country and out of them ten have been selected. The organisers may has some concern regarding Nagpur. Instead of making an issue out of it, the cricket lovers should enjoy the matches”.