India vs West Indies T20I At Eden Gardens Still On, says Sourav Ganguly As Complimentary Passes Tussle Continues
Sourav Ganguly, the president of Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB), has insisted the cricket board will not back off from hosting the first T20I between India and the West Indies on November 4.
The confusion over the allocation of complimentary tickets has put the state associations in a tight spot. Recently, the second ODI between India and West Indies was shifted to Visakhapatnam from Indore due to the same reason. The BCCI had to take the decision due to its tussle with the Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association (MPCA) over complimentary tickets.
Under the new constitution of the BCCI, which has been approved by the Supreme Court, only 10% of tickets for each category can be distributed as complimentary.
However, Sourav Ganguly has made it clear that the Cricket Association of Bengal will distribute the tickets as per previous arrangement.
“The match is on. Tickets have already gone for printing and now nothing can be done. It will stay as it is,” Ganguly told reporters at Eden Gardens.
The former India skipper further said CAB cannot cannot compromise on the issue.
“I completely understand the problems faced by MPCA and I’m totally with them because the practical problems are never understood. Their claim is completely legitimate,” Ganguly had said earlier.
About 30,000 tickets from Eden’s capacity of 67,000 are distributed as complimentary passes including to government agencies like Kolkata Police, the Corporation and Fire brigade.
“I cannot go and ask the government agencies, bureaucrats — people who make the match happen — to collect tickets and pay. If they want (to take the game away), they can. But we are not going to compromise,” Ganguly has said.
India are hosting West Indies for a full-fledged series. The series will consist of two Tests, five One-Day Internationals and three T20 Internationals.
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