NEW DELHI: The BCCI Secretary Devajit Saikia has confirmed that the Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association (UPCA) will handle refunds for ticket holders after fog and poor visibility led to the abandonment of the fourth T20I between India and South Africa.The match cancellation left spectators seeking refunds. According to BCCI policy, ticket holders are entitled to reimbursement, excluding fees, when matches are cancelled without a single ball being bowled.
“That is under the domain of the state cricket association, which is UPCA. So, this game’s hosting state is the UPCA. So, they will be able to tell you about this, and they are the competent authority,” Saikia told IANS on Thursday.“Everything in ticketing is done by the state association, as the BCCI just gives them the hosting rights and all these things are taken care of and are under the domain of the state association.”The match was called off at 9:30 pm after multiple inspections by umpires K.N. Ananthapadmanabhan, Rohan Pandit, and reserve umpire JR Madanagopal failed to yield positive results.India maintains a 2-1 lead in the five-match series, with the final game scheduled at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Friday.The cancellation has sparked discussions about BCCI’s winter scheduling of international games, particularly as this series serves as preparation for the upcoming Men’s T20 World Cup in February-March.This December match marked Lucknow’s first T20I game and now holds the record for India’s first major international match cancelled due to fog.The severe fog and hazardous Air Quality Index (AQI) conditions were evident when Hardik Pandya was seen wearing a mask on the field.“No, it is a solitary weather situation. Normally we have this kind of weather in the month of January. This time it is quite early, number one, and number two, we had a match in Dharamsala also the other day. Dharamsala is a much colder place. So you cannot predict fog, and rain. Nowadays cricket is a throughout the year annual event for 12, and we have to have the matches,” he added.“When we saw that there were big disturbances from fog in northern India in the month of January, we already restructured our domestic cricket matches. That’s why there is a big gap between Ranji Trophy matches in North India. If you look at our schedule, we have bifurcated the Ranji Trophy matches into two parts. During the first part of January, we are not scheduling any matches in North India from last year onwards, if you follow that. This Lucknow incident is an exceptional weather condition. We had three matches in North India — one in Chandigarh, Dharamshala and one in Lucknow — all are in the same build.“If we had got any sense that there will be something like this, you can take the example of rescheduling or swapping of the Test match in New Delhi. If you look at the West Indies match, the second Test was played in New Delhi. In fact, the second Test was scheduled to happen in Kolkata. The first Test match against South Africa was originally scheduled to happen in New Delhi. But when we got to know about this smog situation after Diwali, we swapped the matches of Kolkata and New Delhi. But Lucknow is an exceptional situation. It was not foreseen, and this kind of predictability is not there in weather conditions.“I don’t think Lucknow always has this kind of fog at this part of the time. Maybe in the first part of January, it is normal, but we are still in the second or third week of December. We still have 15 days time to be in that situation. That is one of the tough things we saw yesterday, and for this, we cannot have any kind of rescheduling.”
