Until last week, Thiruvananthapuram was the favourite to host at least five matches of the Women’s World Cup 2025 as a replacement for Bengaluru. However, on Friday, the ICC announced DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai as the new host in a revised schedule, snubbing Thiruvananthapuram. ICC had to shift matches from M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru after the Karnataka government refused to give security clearance following the stampede at the RCB victory ceremony. But why Mumbai and not Thiruvananthapuram?
The reason is the lack of direct flights from other venues. Guwahati, Indore, Vishakhapatnam and Colombo were the five original venues. All had direct flights from Bengaluru. But in Thiruvananthapuram, there is no such facility. The Thiruvananthapuram International Airport has flights to all major cities. But it does not operate any flights to Tier II cities like Guwahati or Indore, or Vishakhapatnam. As per an Onmanorama report, the Kerala Cricket Association expected to host matches at the Greenfield Stadium at least till a few days ago, as the BCCI was exploring ways to operate charter flights from the venues to Thiruvananthapuram. But once the plan failed to materialise, it had no other choice but to shift matches to Mumbai.
“We missed out because there are no direct flights to Thiruvananthapuram from the other venues. We were positive of hosting the World Cup until a few weeks ago. There was a delay in finalising the replacement venue because the BCCI was looking at the possibility of operating chartered flights. That could have been possible if this was a bilateral series and not an ICC event,” Vinod S Kumar, Secretary of KCA, told Onmanorama.
Kerala’s World Cup drought continues
The Women’s World Cup 2025 was supposed to end the drought of World Cup matches in Kerala. After all, Kerala only had to be satisfied with warm-up matches in the ICC Men’s World Cup in 2023 when the venue hosted four games, with only one ending in a result. Apart from the lack of connectivity, the drainage system at the venue has also faced questions.
However, it is unlikely that the state of Sanju Samson will get to host any World Cup matches anytime soon. While Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram had hosted international matches in the past, with the latter hosting matches as recently as November 2023, the connectivity issues prevented the Greenfield Stadium from hosting World Cup matches.
The Kerala Cricket Association shifted its base from Kochi’s JLN Stadium to the Greenfield Stadium in 2014. With the football-mad state prioritising Indian Super League and Kerala Blasters, Greenfield Stadium became the new home of Kerala Cricket. Kochi’s JLN Stadium was turned into a football and athletics venue.
The Greenfield Stadium hosted the first international match in 2017 with a T20I between India and West Indies. In 2018, it hosted India vs New Zealand ODI. In all, the venue has hosted six matches since 2017.
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