CHENNAI: Forecast of a cyclonic storm and legal posers on refund of ticket money for the recently-abandoned match against South Africa have put the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA) on a tricky wicket. According to weather forecasts, a cyclonic storm off the Bay of Bengal is likely to pass the coast between Chennai and Machilipatnam in Andhra Pradesh on Wednesday night or Thursday morning. TNCA has decided not to issue tickets till 9 am on Thursday. "We will decide on selling season tickets after assessing the weather conditions," a TNCA member told DNA.
They have reason to be cautious. The Madras High Court has issued notices to the TNCA and BCCI on a petition seeking refund of the ticket amount after the November 22 wash-out. TNCA is estimated to have collected Rs 3 crore for the 45,000 seats with tickets ranging from Rs 200 to Rs 8,000.
"Why can't you refund the ticket money? Was it a wise decision to go ahead with the match when there were rain forecasts?" the court asked.
TNCA's counsel PS Raman replied that the tickets were sold out a week in advance and that if the TNCA cancelled the scheduled match before hand, it would have had to wait for 21 matches to get its turn to host an international match under the rules. The case was posted for December 13.
TNCA is also finding it difficult to get insurance cover. They submitted an application for an insurance cover of more than Rs 5 crore to the United India Insurance Company, which is yet to be obliged. TNCA secretary CR Vijayaraghavan said: "We got hardly ten days between two matches to work out things. We will get it done."
