DY Patil to host England

The Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) has finally got the nod from the Indian board to host the second warm-up game at the DY Patil Stadium. The touring England side which were earlier scheduled to play their tour practice game at the MCA-Bandra Kurla Complex ground will now play at Navi Mumbai on November 2.

MCA president Ravi Savant informed that he met the BCCI chief N Srinivasan and explained his position of why MCA couldn't host the game at the MCA-BKC ground.

"We met BCCI president N Srinivasan this morning and he has agreed to our request to shift the second warm-up game with England from BKC to D Y Patil stadium," he said. The shifting of the match scheduled from November 3-5 was necessitated as there were a lot of security issues relating to MCA's BKC ground, said Savant.

"There were a lot of security issues raised by the Mumbai police about holding the match at BKC. They highlighted these security concerns in a letter to us and we decided the best option was to shift the match to D Y Patil stadium in Navi Mumbai, which also comes under our jurisdiction," he said. This is one area where a lot of people from the suburbs and from in and around Navi Mumbai can come and wartch the England team in action which otherwise they wouldn't be able to, he said.

The BCCI president was magnanimous enough to accede to our request, Savant added. He said that once a match is allotted by the BCCI to an association, it is the association's prerogative to hold it at a venue which is preferable. "I don't know why BKC was chosen earlier, but once the representatives of the England and Wales Cricket Board arrived in Mumbai to inspect the venues of the matches, I wrote to the Board that the match be shifted to D Y Patil stadium," Savant said.

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