Indore: The curious case of complimentary passes for India matches has returned to haunt the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Cricket fans waiting to watch live action in the second ODI between India and West Indies at the Holkar Cricket Stadium in Indore on October 24 are in for a rude shock. With the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) failing to provide the Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association (MPCA) clarity over how to go forward with the allocation of complimentary tickets for the game, the MPCA secretary Milind Kanmadikar informed the BCCI and the CoA on Saturday evening that the association is no longer in a position to host the game.
Even though CoA replied to MPCA’s mail on Saturday night itself, Kanmadikar said that it was too late for the association to organize the game. “This is very unprofessional on their part. We have been trying our best to abide by all the new regulations, but we have only 7000 pavilion passes and if we give away say 700 (10 per cent) of those to the BCCI, how will we function? We also have certain commitments. Also, we were worried and sent out the first mail on September 8 so that a solution can be got. The first three mails didn’t get a response, but the moment we said that we won’t be able to hold the match, the replies to this mail comes in 30 minutes. I hope the other associations also take note of the unprofessional behavior,” he told a leading English daily.
The CoA — having failed to communicate back earlier — replied to the mail from the MPCA on Saturday and rued the fact that no association had brought forward the issue of ticket distribution in front of the Supreme Court bench when asked to present their practical issues before the new constitution would be implemented.
Countering the claim of the CoA on the state associations not bringing practical difficulties to the fore as requested by the SC, another senior MPCA official said that if the associations didn’t, the CoA also could have since quite a few series had been played under their supervision and they too would have seen the practical problem that the state associations face.
