CAB not to sell tickets for South Africa Test

The Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) may not sell tickets for the India-South Africa Test at the Eden Gardens in February, a move similar to the one adopted during the fourth ODI between India and Sri Lanka last month. The CAB had then offered the available seats to its members, various clubs, district sports units, affiliated universities and special quotas.

The reasoning was that with renovation work in full swing to meet the 2011 World Cup deadline, the CAB would fail to ensure full capacity, informed Biswarup Dey, the association's joint secretary and the BCCI's tours and fixture committee member.

"We are likely to follow the same ticketing arrangements that we had at last month's one-dayer at Eden," Dey told PTI. "After all, the number of seats available isn't going to go up when the Test match is round the corner."

Eden Gardens will be hosting four World Cup league matches and with the B, C, K and L blocks demolished and closed for renovation work, only 45,000 seats out of the total capacity of around one lakh were available for use during the Sri Lanka game.

The CAB is expected to hold a working committee meeting in a few days to discuss the modalities of ticketing arrangements for the South Africa Test, tentatively scheduled from February 14-18. The final decision would be taken at the meeting.

India will host South Africa for a full tour, comprising two Tests and three ODIs. Though the dates for the tour, scheduled for early this year, are yet to be finalised, India's request to play two Tests in what was originally planned as an ODI series has been accepted. Nagpur has been confirmed as the other Test venue. Kanpur, Jaipur - which had missed out during the Australia series last year - and Ahmedabad have been decided as the three ODI venues.

While the Sri Lanka ODI marked Kolkata's first since February 2007, the second Test of the South Africa series will be the first in over two years, after India took on Pakistan back in November-December 2007.