Exclusive: Ahmedabad our best bet to host the T20 World Cup final: Saikia

The first day of a first-ever Test match in Guwahati on Saturday must have given the BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia enough butterflies in the stomach. As a former secretary of Assam Cricket Association (ACA) and a player from the state, he was wearing twin hats – welcoming the board president Mithun Manhas, other bigwigs and national selectors and casting a wary eye on the proceedings from time to time.

It had been an eventful 11 months since Saikia, the attorney general of Assam, was first appointed as the BCCI secretary last December when the last incumbent Jay Shah vacated the position to take over as ICC president. Saikia was re-elected in the September AGM and admits that after a tumultuous year, it’s time to buckle up for the Men’s T20 World Cup in February-March next year.  

‘’Come 25 November (Tuesday), there will be an event in Mumbai where the ICC will announce the fixtures and venues. After the agreement signed by the BCCI and the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) before the Champions Trophy, it’s now agreed that any global event for next three years will see India not travelling to Pakistan and vice versa  - with their matches being held in a third country.

‘’The same principle will be followed in World T20 and we see no difficulty on that front. There will be huge expectations from our national team as defending champions,’’ Saikia told the National Herald in an exclusive interview at the Barsapara Stadium.  Media reports say that the ICC has finalised five venues for the event: Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata and Ahmedabad in India and Colombo for Pakistan’s matches. It’s a template which was followed in the recent ICC Women’s World Cup as well - with the final certain to be held in Ahmedabad and will be moved to Sri Lanka only in case of Pakistan making it to the title-round.

 When asked how come the capital city of Gujarat has been virtually an unanimous choice for all major men’s cricketing events ever since the stadium has gone the makeover, Saikia said that the newly built stadium has emerged as the best bet to host such marquee matches on its own steam. ‘’During the 2023 Men’s ODI World Cup, we faced a huge pressure of tickets and there were thousands of guests from abroad. The official capacity of that stadium is now 130,000 and it’s got a wonderful hospitality area that no other venue in the country can match.

 ‘’There are quite a few stadia like the Wankhede in Mumbai or Eden Gardens in Kolkata, but they are quite old. There is hence a commercial aspect to it while it’s also about the spectator experience which we are expecting to provide. It’s nothing to do with the fact that it belongs to Gujarat Cricket Association or whoever is running it,’’ a candid Saikia observed.

Reflecting on a tumultuous 2025 for the BCCI – which was marked by the regional geopolitics casting a shadow first on Champions Trophy and then IPL – Saikia said handling the delay for their franchise league was quite an ordeal. ‘’The only time a IPL had to be stopped midway was before was the Covid times, but we had no option but to suspend the league for about a week. There was a talk of shifting it to South Africa or Dubai as the IPL operates in a limited window and if the teams once disperse, it becomes a major problem to bring the overseas players back.

 ‘’However, we managed to revive the tournament within 10 days and completed on 3 rd June instead of the last week of May. Then again, we had to change some of the venues because of weather conditions and Kolkata lost out on a semi-final and the final. We are aware that there were a lot of heartburns among the fans, but we had actually taken a due diligence from all authorities concerned and there wre rains in Kolkata due to depression.

Talking about Indian cricket teams’ balance sheet in the year where they had a few notable success in white ball events - with the Women’s World Cup being the recent, Saikia attributed it to a robust domestic cricket structure in the country. ‘’We were particularly concerned about the fact that the Indian women’s team needed to break the jinx of winning a World Cup – having twice finished as runners-up in the 50-over edition and once runners-up in World T20. There was a lot of meticulous planning for the last six months under head coach Amol Majumdar and it was satisfying to see that it gave the results,’’ he said.

Endorsing the popular view that the Men in Blue are capable of fielding as many as three white ball teams simultaneously, Saikia said: ‘’There was actually an occasion in 2023 when three teams were playing simultaneously – Asian Games in China, Ireland and Sri Lanka and were winning. The competition is so tough that whenever a team is selected, there is criticism in social media on who has missed out etc. This, however, shows you that there are no obvious choices because of the competition. More than 2500 domestic matches are played every year across various tournaments,’’ he said.

“The Test team, on the other hand, is a work in progress after the retirement of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Ravi Ashwin. The new look team had actually surprised us in England and we will need it a little time,’’ he added.