T20 World Cup 2024: Why New York got all three India matches and not Dallas?

India will be playing three of their 2024 T20 World Cup matches in New York — Ireland (5 June), Pakistan (9 June) and USA (12 June). The fourth group match against Canada will be played Lauderhill, Florida. The India matches will be played in a 34,000-seat modular stadium which will host eight matches during the tournament.

The stadium will be at Nassau County, Long Island and will be a temporary structure.

Apart from New York, Dallas and Florida in USA are also hosting World Cup matches and have permanent stadiums. Despite this the organisers decided to host India games only at New York even if the pop-up stadium is still to become functional and only expected to be ready this week.

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It has now been reported that Dallas Super Kings, an affiliate of IPL giant Chennai Super Kings, also wrote to ICC for an India match at Dallas to help promote the game in the region. Grand Prairie Cricket Stadium’s hosted Dallas Super Kings matches during the Major League Cricket (MLC), but the global body still decided to host the matches in New York.

“If the ICC wants to promote cricket in the US, they should have allotted an India game to us,” DSK CEO Kasi Viswanathan told Cricbuzz.

Now it has been reported by Cricbuzz that ICC made such a decision due to various reasons including the size of the Dallas Stadium which can only host 7,500 fans. ICC wanted a bigger crowd for India game. Also logistical challenges and time zone issues went against Dallas.

“This event isn’t a great time zone and we have to balance that with more local demands. Dallas is an hour further away from New York and the Caribbean, which makes scheduling an India game there impossible,” an organising official told. The India games are the most attended. Why would we send them to the smallest venue in the USA to limit the number of fans who can attend?”