"No Sense Of Fairplay": Punjab Sports Minister Writes To BCCI After Mohali Misses Out On Hosting 2023 World Cup Matches

Punjab Sports Minister Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer on Friday wrote to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Roger Binny, urging him to allot a few World Cup matches to his state

Punjab Sports Minister Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer on Friday wrote to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Roger Binny, urging him to allot a few World Cup matches to his state. India is set to play host to ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 later this year. In his letter to the BCCI president, the Punjab minister claimed that there was "no sense of fair play" in the scheduling of matches for the showpiece event.

"Punjab is renowned throughout the length and breadth of the globe for its age-old traditions of peerless bravery, unmatched hospitality and unwavering faith in secular ideals. This land of warriors blessed by Gurus, Saints, Philosophers, and Poets has nurtured the ideals of peace, compassion, and communal amity since the primordial times," the minister wrote to Binny.

Making a strong argument for Punjab to host some of the matches in the forthcoming ODI World Cup, the minister said the state has given India some of its most famous and celebrated cricket stars in Bishan Singh Bedi, Mohinder Amarnath, Yashpal Sharma, Madan Lal, Navjot Singh Sidhu, Harbhajan Singh, Yuvraj Singh, Shubman Gill and Arshdeep Singh and has been a "frontrunner and flag bearer of the nation".

"In the sporting arena too, Punjab has the distinction of being the frontrunner and flag bearer of the Nation. When it comes to the National craze i.e. Cricket, Punjab has the honour of producing legends viz., Lala Amarnath, Bishan Singh Bedi, Mohinder Amarnath, Yashpal Sharma, Madan Lal, Navjot Singh Sidhu, Harbhajan Singh, Yuvraj Singh, Reetinder Sodhi, Dinesh Mongia, Harvinder Singh, Vikram Rathore, Sharandeep Singh and the latest sensations Shubman Gill and Arshdeep Singh, the list is endless," he stated in the letter.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader argued further that Punjab's sports infrastructure has "rubbed shoulders with the best in the world".