CHENNAI/NEW DELHI: Following pressure from the state associations that they won’t host matches in the India-West Indies series if the new rule of putting up 90% of tickets for public sale is not relaxed, the Committee of Administrators (CoA) offered a solution on Saturday.
Cutting down BCCI’s share of complimentary tickets from 1200 to 604, the CoA offered these extra tickets to the staging units, which they can distribute as free passes. It also said that free/priced tickets given to members of the associations will not be counted as free passes. Some of the states said this decision will help. Some said this may not be enough.
Most associations had objected to the new rule saying that they can’t restrict free passes to 10% of the stadium’s total capacity because constituent members/clubs/districts are entitled to complimentary passes. They also said that other than these, a sizeable number goes to government agencies.
The state units of Assam and Kerala said after Saturday’s development that this will help matters, although they still want a dialogue with the CoA. “The BCCI cutting down on its own share and giving it to us is good. We will speak to them again,” said an official of Assam Cricket Association, which is hosting the first ODI in Guwahati on October 21. Staging the fifth game in Thiruvananthapuram, the Kerala Cricket Association said the same.
The Tamil Nadu Cricket Association, which had earlier stated that it wouldn’t host the third and final T20 in Chennai on November 11 unless the rule is relaxed, welcomed the CoA move, but added that it may not be sufficient. “We need a total of around 6000 passes. Even if the BCCI gives us 600, we will still be short. We will decide next week what needs to be done,” said a TNCA insider.