Embarassed by the pitch fiasco in final ODI between India and Sri Lanka, an apologetic Delhi and District Cricket Association on Sunday said it will take all possible steps to ensure that such an incident did not happen again.
"We regret the inconvenience caused to all spectators and others. We offer our apologies to them. We have decided that all gate tickets will be refunded. Refunds will be made through the media by which they were sold and a detailed announcment in this regard will be made ion a day or two," DDCA president Arun Jaitley told reporters after the match was called off because of a dangerous pitch.
"We have taken the matter very seriously. Though it is a technical matter as pitches come into the supervision of BCCI's technical committee, we will look into every aspect of the issue so that it is not repeated again," he said.
To the embarrassment of the DDCA officials, the game at the Ferozeshah Kotla was called off when the Sri Lankan innings was into its 24th over after Thilina Kandamby complained to the on-field umpires about the dangerous bounce.
This led to a mid-field conference involving Match Referee Alan Hurst, India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his Lankan counterpart Kumar Sangakkara, coaches from both sides Gary Kirsten and Trevor Bayliss and the man in the eye of storm, Kotla curator Vijay Bahadur Mishra.
Jaitley, however, refused to comment on the discussions between Match Referee Hurst and both the concerned parties.
"Match referee did make various consultations but we are not in a position to comment on it.
"As far as the DDCA was concerned, we would be looking into the areas where we lacked and take best possible expert opinion to ensure that such incidents don't occur in future again," the DDCA president said.
The pitch used in today's game has been relaid last month after the one-dayer between India and Australia under the watchful eyes of BCCI pitches committee chairman Daljit Singh.
But Jaitley refused to point fingers on any particular individual for the fiasco.
"We don't want to enter into any blame game. Our main objective is to look into the matter thoroughly and find out what went wrong," he said.
The incident also triggered off crowd trouble as the incensed spectators hurled water bottles and broken chairs into the ground.
The incident also put a question mark over Kotla's prospect as a 2011 World Cup venue since a similar incident 12 years ago had invited a brief ban for the Nehru Stadium in Indore.
Asked if he was aware about the possibility of Kotla facing a ban from the International Cricket Council for the fiasco, Jaitley said, "I don't want to get into any hypothetical questions. Whatever decisions we have taken, we have done it in consultation with the BCCI." PTI
