Delhi Smog: Two Ranji matches cancelled due to air pollution

The severity of air pollution and dense Smog cover in the capital on Sunday led to the cancellation of the two Ranji Trophy encounters - Bengal and Gujarat at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium and Hyderabad vs Tripura at the Karnail Singh Stadium.

While Gujarat team will be leaving Delhi on Monday for Ahmedabad, Bengal team will be staying back till Tuesday before flying off to Rajkot for the next game against Tamil Nadu. The BCCI in a media release stated that both matches will be rescheduled.

“The Technical Committee of the BCCI recognised the extraordinary circumstances prevailing in Delhi and decided to re-schedule the Paytm Ranji Trophy 2016-17 fifth round matches between Hyderabad-Tripura and Gujarat-Bengal after the first two days of play were lost due to smog conditions in New Delhi.

“The revised venue and dates for the above matches which will be played after the league phase of Ranji trophy, will be announced shortly.” The situation was not expected to improve for a few more days. 

Match referee P Ranganathan, in consultation with BCCI and the respective state associations, decided that there is no point in waiting for two more days.

“This is unavoidable and unforeseen circumstances. This cannot be considered as a match. So there is no question of sharing points,” match referee P Ranganathan said.