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BCCI BREAKS silence on refund issue after 4th SA T20I abandoned due to fog
24htopnews | December 19, 2025 12:06 PM CST

New Delhi: Following the abandonment of the fourth T20I between India and South Africa due to intense fog and low visibility BCCI Secretary Devajit Saikia said that the Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association (UPCA) is the competent authority responsible for handling full ticket refunds. The matchs cancellation left fans disappointed many of whom are requesting refunds. Under the BCCIs refund policy fans are eligible for reimbursement (minus fees) if a match is cancelled or abandoned before a single ball is bowled  That is under the domain of the state cricket association which is UPCA. So this games hosting state is the UPCA. So they will be able to tell you about this and they are the competent authority. 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 Saikia told IANS on Thursday. Multiple inspections by on-field umpires K.N. Ananthapadmanabhan and Rohan Pandit along with reserve umpire J.R. Madanagopal failed to improve conditions and the match was ultimately called off at 9:30 pm. With the match at the BRSABV Ekana Cricket Stadium abandoned India leads the five-match T20I series 2-1. The fifth and final T20I is scheduled for Friday at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. The cancellation of the fourth T20I has sparked renewed debate over the BCCIs decision to schedule international matches during the winter especially as the series against South Africa is considered crucial preparation for the Men’s T20 World Cup in February-March. This marked the first T20I scheduled in Lucknow in December and it has now gained the unfortunate distinction of being Indias first major international match to be abandoned due to heavy fog. Indias star all-rounder Hardik Pandya was spotted wearing a mask on the field emphasizing the intensity of the fog and the hazardous Air Quality Index (AQI). While scheduling matches in North India during winter has long been a topic of debate Saikia called Wednesday/s abandoned game in Lucknow a rare and exceptional situation 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. 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. Thats 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 buildhe elaborated. Saikia also cited an example where earlier warnings about smog in New Delhi after Diwali resulted in the national capital hosting the second Test against the West Indies in October rather than the initially planned series opener against South Africa. 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. I dont 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 he concluded.


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