Mumbai Cricket Association writes to BCCI to shift match from BKC

[G_B_]

MUMBAI, OCT 11: The Mumbai Cricket Association has written to the BCCI requesting it to shift the visiting England teamÃÔ second warm-up game from the Bandra Kurla Complex ground to D.Y. Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai mainly due to security concerns. ŵhere are a couple of reasons why we want the match (scheduled from November 3 to 5), to be shifted from BKC to D Y Patil Stadium. The first reason is there is no fence on the boundary of the BKC ground, leading to spectators jumping into the playing area, MCA president Ravi Savant informed PTI today. The other reason, Savant said, is since England are already scheduled to play the Test match at the Wankhede Stadium from November 23-27, Mumbai city fans can watch them. Ÿe want to provide the chance to those staying in Navi Mumbai and around, which also is under our jurisdiction, to watch the England team in action, said Savant. However, BCCI CAO Prof Ratnakar Shetty pleaded ignorance about receipt of any such letter. Ū donÃÕ know about any such letter. As of now the match is to be held at BKC, said Shetty curtly. England are to reach Mumbai on October 29 and will prepare for the four-Test series, considered a grudge series by India after their 0-4 rout in the last away series, by playing three warm-up tour games two in Mumbai and the third in Ahmedabad, venue of the opening match of the rubber. EnglandÃÔ tour opener is scheduled from October 30 to November 1 at the Cricket Club of IndiaÃÔ Brabourne Stadium and the third game is to be held on the second ground, just outside the Sardar Patel Stadium in Motera from November 8?1. The opening Test is scheduled at the Motera main stadium from November 15 to 19 with the subsequent Tests scheduled at Mumbai, Kolkata (December 5-9) and Nagpur (Dec 13-17). England would play two T20 Internationals against India on December 20 (Pune) and December 22 (Mumbai) prior to departing home for the Christmas and New Year break, before returning to play a fiveÃÃŽatch ODI series in January 2013.

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/sports/article3987683.ece I have been to Dy patil and its a fantastic 55,000 capacity stadium. I do hope its used more often in the future.

[Crookbond]

DY Patil ... my ground! :yay:

[G_B_]

Its a shame that the BCCI decided to develop Wankhede. I would have sold it off and expanded DY patil to 100,000. As things stand Braboune Wankhede BKC and Dy patil means there is a glut of grounds without a huge ground to cater to the large population

[Crookbond]

DY Patil will not become active as long as there's no airport nearby. Currently, teams travel fair bit of a distance to reach Nerul from Bandra or other places where their hotels are. Nerul is also not the best place for events.

[G_B_]

DY Patil will not become active as long as there's no airport nearby. Currently' date=' teams travel fair bit of a distance to reach Nerul from Bandra or other places where their hotels are. Nerul is also not the best place for events.[/quote'] transport links can be developed really. Its about 20 km from bandra to churchgate for Wankhede and about 20km to Nerul. So i dont see a difference in travelling times. Public transport remains an issue. No doubt but I think people now have enough cars to get them to the matches. In any case developing Wankhede was a poor choice. They should have at the very least developed the BKC plot to make a 50-60k stadium with a metro connecting bandra to kurla it would have ticked all boxes.

[Sean Bradley]

DY Patil ... my ground! :yay:

Dextyaaa, are you from Navi Mumbai ?

[G_B_]

Dextyaaa' date=' are you from Navi Mumbai ?[/quote'] if he is then he is not a real mumbaikar.....hahahaha

[Crookbond]

transport links can be developed really. Its about 20 km from bandra to churchgate for Wankhede and about 20km to Nerul. So i dont see a difference in travelling times. Public transport remains an issue. No doubt but I think people now have enough cars to get them to the matches. In any case developing Wankhede was a poor choice. They should have at the very least developed the BKC plot to make a 50-60k stadium with a metro connecting bandra to kurla it would have ticked all boxes.

Don't go on Google Maps distance. Traveling from Bandra to Nerul is vastly different than that too Churchgate. Also, most cricketers are located close to the ground so I expect them to stay at hotels in and around CCI, Wankhede and not Bandra.

Dextyaaa' date=' are you from Navi Mumbai ?[/quote'] Bradlya Melyaa, I am from Mumbai. I have some connection to Navi Mumbai though - that's a different story. Are you from Navi Mumbai? :hmmm: I know most places around.

[G_B_]

Don't go on Google Maps distance. Traveling from Bandra to Nerul is vastly different than that too Churchgate. Also, most cricketers are located close to the ground so I expect them to stay at hotels in and around CCI, Wankhede and not Bandra. Bradlya Melyaa, I am from Mumbai. I have some connection to Navi Mumbai though - that's a different story. Are you from Navi Mumbai? :hmmm: I know most places around.

I am not really. In the past few years Nerul have got a lot of new hotels. With traffic i think its the same distance from Andheri (why even say bandra lol) the only hitch is the vashi bridge

[Crookbond]

Vashi Bridge PLUS the stretch where you come to the Express Highway via Sion. That's the main bottleneck.

[Sean Bradley]

if he is then he is not a real mumbaikar.....hahahaha

Kyun bhai??

[G_B_]

Vashi Bridge PLUS the stretch where you come to the Express Highway via Sion. That's the main bottleneck.

that bottleneck is gone via a flyover. I have traveled via that area last month so. suman Nagar flyover means the traffic flow is smooth. Vashi bridge remains a problem for which they need to construct another bridge

[Crookbond]

Kyun bhai??

He's taking a pot shot at you Bradlya! :P

[Sean Bradley]

I am from Navi Mumbai :yay:, D Y patil sadium is 15 mins away from my place, though an architechtural marvel, this stadium has a long way to go to host any intl Matches, Accomodation facilities are adequate, with Four Points at Vashi. I somehow feel the ground could have been a 15 meters broader in diameter. With Panvel airport coming underway we could well see some intl matches at this stadium. :two_thumbs_up:

[G_B_]

I am from Navi Mumbai :yay:' date= D Y patil sadium is 15 mins away from my place, though an architechtural marvel, this stadium has a long way to go to host any intl Matches, Accomodation facilities are adequate, with Four Points at Vashi. I somehow feel the ground could have been a 15 meters broader in diameter. With Panvel airport coming underway we could well see some intl matches at this stadium. :two_thumbs_up:

thats a shame....

[Sean Bradley]

thats a shame....

:finger::finger::finger:

[Crookbond]

I am from Navi Mumbai :yay:' date=' D Y patil sadium is 15 mins away from my place, though an architechtural marvel, this stadium has a long way to go to host any intl Matches, Accomodation facilities are adequate, with Four Points at Vashi. I somehow feel the ground could have been a 15 meters broader in diameter. [b']With Panvel airport coming underway we could well see some intl matches at this stadium. :two_thumbs_up:

Once that's done sure. There were plans to convert LP into a hotel - have they materialized?

[Sean Bradley]

Once that's done sure. There were plans to convert LP into a hotel - have they materialized?

No i dont think so, its a shady area for a hotel, There are 2 decent hotels in Navi Mumbai, Four Points is good if you are talking about cricket in DY Patil.

[munafbhai]

Dextyaaa' date=' are you from Navi Mumbai ?[/quote'] Are you from Navi Mumbai. I stayed in Vashi for 32 years before migrating to Canada

[Mariyam]

transport links can be developed really. Its about 20 km from bandra to churchgate for Wankhede and about 20km to Nerul. So i dont see a difference in travelling times. Public transport remains an issue. No doubt but I think people now have enough cars to get them to the matches. In any case developing Wankhede was a poor choice. They should have at the very least developed the BKC plot to make a 50-60k stadium with a metro connecting bandra to kurla it would have ticked all boxes.

There is a ground at BKC? Or is 'BKC ground' an euphemism for the MCA ground at Kalanagar? Your point about Nerul being just 20 kms away doesn't hold. For someone who has been attending IPL games for the last 2-3 years, I find the commute to Nerul (from South Bombay) much more tiresome & time consuming than a commute to Bandra. The DY Patil as such is a state of the art stadium. However, the getting there from Mumbai is a Herculean task. Leave aside the express highway bit, all the other roads- from Nerul to the stadium, and from Sion->Chembur->Vashi are perpetually clogged. And the parking facilities at the DY Patil aren't too great either. There have been times when we had to park a good 2 kms away in the wilderness (that would be the rest of Nerul, apart from the DY Patil stadium) and walk to the stadium. The 'new' Wankhede has been sufficiently modernized and downsized in terms of capacity. They re-aligned some of the support columns, and there is plenty of sea-breeze coming in regularly. There are other things too that you have to consider. Post game, if people want to go for dinner, there aren't many avenues in the Nerul/Kharghar vicinity which stay open post 10:30-11pm. Trains/buses to Nerul from Mumbai aren't all that frequent either. And you'd barely have any post 11pm. There was this once when a few friends of mine who were then working in Pune decided to attend an IPL game. It was an 8:30pm game and the guys from Pune reached Nerul before me though we started our respective journeys at roughly the same time. That should tell you how much of a pain the commute by road can be. And we all know that missing an hour of an IPL match is like watching a K-Jo directed SRK starer minus the songs. All things considered, the DY Patil doesn't stand a chance against the new Wankhede as the premier cricketing destination for Mumbai.