MUMBAI: The BCCI has moved the knockouts of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, a domestic T20 tournament, from Indore to Pune due to logistical reasons. The knockouts of the event, scheduled to be held from Dec 12 to 18, will now be staged at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Gahunje and the Dr DY Patil Academy ground in Ambi in Pune.“We informed BCCI about a fortnight ago that we will not be able to stage the SMAT knockouts as there is a lack of hotel room availability here due to some global conference (of doctors) in Indore from Dec 9-12,” Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association CEO Rohit Pandit told TOI from Indore on Friday. A BCCI official confirmed that following the MPCA’s request, the knockouts of the T20 tournament were moved to Pune. Quite a few top players in the country are expected to participate in the tournament.Meanwhile, the IndiGo flights crisis, with the airline having already cancelled around 1,000 flights while many other domestic flights have been disrupted, could affect the conduct of the BCCI’s domestic tournaments too. Currently, the BCCI is conducting the league stage of the SMAT at four centres: Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Lucknow and Hyderabad.“If the crisis continues, it could be a challenge to fly the eight participating teams, as well as the umpires and other officials to Pune for the SMAT knockouts. Also, the Women’s Under-23 T20 Trophy in Ahmedabad and the Men’s Under-19 Cooch Behar Trophy are going on at the moment, for which the teams and officials (umpires and officials) need to travel constantly,” said a source tracking developments.
