Another fine mess...problems at the World Cup

The Cricket World Cup has been plagued with problems in the build-up and during the Feb. 19-April 2 event which only started in India on Saturday.

Here is a timeline on the problems which have cropped up in the tournament so far.

Jan. 27 - Eden Gardens is stripped of its only match involving the host nation (India v England on Feb 27) because the International Cricket Council do not feel it will be ready in time after undergoing a construction facelift.

Feb. 18 - Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium is given a scare ahead of its preparation to stage the April 2 World Cup final, when the city's top fire chief says "the renovated stadium has many loopholes in its fire safety mechanism" and refuses to approve it.

-- Organisers hastily fix the problems and it is declared safe days later.

Feb. 21 - KyaZoonga -- the official website selling World Cup tickets -- crashes before the site even goes live for the sale of 1,000 tickets for the final. The ICC later says that 10 million tried to access it in 20 minutes.

Feb. 24 - Police launch a baton charge on fans who have spent the night queuing for tickets for the India-England match at Bangalore.

--  A leaked ICC letter criticises the Indian governing body, the BCCI, over its ticketing policy. It says that the competition sponsors are beginning to become concerned about the hitches. The BCCI responds that "these things happen in India".

March 2 - BCCI writes an open letter to the ICC criticising its "inadequate" umpire decision review system and attacking the governing body's general manager Dave Richardson for comments about Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

March 8 - Police launch baton-charge in Nagpur on fans seeking tickets for the India v South Africa match on March 12. The police action is defended by Dhoni: "They (police) should not be projected in a bad light all the time."

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