ICC World Cup 2023 venues: Key stadiums that won't host any games

An array of major stadiums were left out of the list which could have been potential match venues for the high voltage World Cup games.

A major row has arisen over the venues selected by the International Cricket Council to host the upcoming Men's ODI Cricket World Cup. A total of 10 cities across India have been selected as venues for hosting the Cricket World Cup 2023 with Ahmedabad bagging the much-anticipated India-Pakistan game.

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However, an array of major stadiums which could have been potential match venues for the high-voltage World Cup games were left out of the list . Let's have a look at a few of these cricket stadiums and find out the major ODIs which were played here in the recent past.

Mohali
The biggest miss from the list of World Cup venues is Mohali's IS Bindra Stadium in Punjab. The last two times India has hosted the World Cup, this 27,000-seater stadium has hosted semifinals in both 1996 and 2011 editions of the showpiece event. Punjab Sports Minister Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer has also slammed ICC's decision of not considering Mohali for hosting any of the World Cup 2023 matches. The ground has seen several iconic moments, with the most recent ones including Virat Kohli's epic 82 not out in 2016 and Rohit Sharma record-breaking third ODI double century in 2017. The last ODI played at the Stadium was India vs Australia on March 10, 2019.

Thiruvananthapuram
Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram Shashi Tharoor took to Twitter to share his dissapointment over Greenfield staidum of Kerala's capital not making it to the list of the chosen stadiums. India vs Sri Lanka on Jan 15, 2023 was the last ODI played at Thrivananthapuram's Greenfield International Stadium.

Indore
Indore's Holkar Stadium that was chosen as the replacement of Dharamsala in the marquee India-Australia Test series earlier this year is also absent from the list of venues for the event. It hosted the India vs New Zealand ODI on January 24, 2023 which was the last ODI played on the Indore turf.

Rajkot
Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium last played host to the ODI between India vs Australia on January 17, 2020. This Rajkot ground has not witnessed any 50-over match
ever since.

Ranchi
Legendary team India ex-captain MS Dhoni's home turf - JSCA International Stadium Complex - will also not be seeing any World Cup games. The last ODI played in Rajkot was India vs South Africa on October 9, 2022.

Nagpur
While two Maharashtra stadiums, Pune and Mumbai, got games, Nagpur was ignored. India vs Australia on March 5, 2019 was the last One-Day International played at Nagpur's Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium. India pulverised Australia in this game and won the match by 8 runs, wherein Virat Kohli was declared Man of the Match. This stadium has a seating capacity for a whopping 45,000 occupants.

(With inputs from ESPN CricInfo)