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]BCCI Changes SMAT Knockout Venue as IndiGo Flight Crisis Raises Concern
by K D Mishra
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has had to change the venues for the knockout stage of the 2025-26 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT). Indore’s Holkar Cricket Stadium and Emerald High School Ground were earlier supposed to host the last 13 matches, including the Super League and the Final, from December 12 to 18.
But the Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association (MPCA) told BCCI that they cannot host the games because of logistical problems. A global doctors’ conference is taking place in Indore, and because of that, hotels in the city are fully booked. This has made it difficult to arrange stay for the teams and officials.
So, BCCI has shifted the SMAT knockout matches from Indore to Pune. Now, the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Gahunje and the Dr DY Patil Academy in Ambi will host the matches.
“We informed BCCI about two weeks ago that we won’t be able to hold the SMAT knockouts because there are no hotel rooms available due to a global doctors’ conference in Indore from December 9 to 12,” MPCA CEO Rohit Pandit told the Times of India.
Because of the ongoing IndiGo flight crisis, nearly 1,000 flights have been delayed or cancelled due to tech problems, bad weather, and new crew rostering rules. This could create big travel issues for the BCCI, and the board may even have to rethink venues for domestic tournaments.
Players, coaches, umpires, and officials now need to travel from the four SMAT group-stage cities Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Lucknow, and Hyderabad to Pune for the knockout matches. Along with this, many other domestic events are also happening at the same time.
“If the flight crisis doesn’t improve, it will be difficult to move the eight teams, umpires, and officials to Pune for the SMAT knockouts. The Women’s Under-23 T20 Trophy in Ahmedabad and the Men’s Under-19 Cooch Behar Trophy are also going on, and their teams and officials need to travel regularly,” a source told the Times of India.
