New Delhi: South Africa's warm-up game for the Twenty20 leg of their India tour has been shifted to the Palam ground from Feroz Shah Kotla with DDCA expressing their inability to host the match.
The match will now take place at Palam on September 29 ahead of the three T20 Internationals with the Dharamsala staging the tour-opener on October 2.
Chetan Chauhan, former India opener and vice-president at the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA), said the state body had written to the BCCI stating their inability to host the warm-up after failing to get the required permissions from various authorities.
"We were not sure about how the pitch would play. Also, we could not got the permission from the municipal authorities in time for the game," said Chauhan.
Chauhan, however, assured that Kotla will be ready to host the fourth and final Test of the "The Mahatma Gandhi-Nelson Mandela", starting on December 3.
Besides, the three T20s and four Tests, South Africa and India will also battle it out in five One-day Internationals.
Chauhan told PTI: "There are three reasons for not hosting the game. Firstly, we have not got permission from relevant government departments. Secondly, there is some internal differences in DDCA where we have not reached consensus. Thirdly, as ground in charge I am not sure how the newly laid strip would behave with no competitive match being played."
He further defended DDCA's decision to not host the warm-up.
"I can't let an international match happen where a top side plays on an untested pitch. We will start practice games from October 1. And there is no threat to the Test match which will be held in December. The ground will be ready by second week of October," added Chauhan.
