India-Lanka ODI abandoned, Delhi shamed

NEW DELHI: India’s cricket board (BCCI) is the world’s richest, and Delhi is India’s ‘showpiece’ capital, which aspires to world city status. But onSunday, Delhi was left hanging its head in shame as the fifth One-dayer between India and Sri Lanka at Ferozeshah Kotla was called off after 23.3 overs due to dangerously poor pitch conditions. The BCCI, which always shows alacrity when it comes to making money from cricket, took absolutely no action for several months even as the Kotla pitch came under heavy criticism. It finally suspended its Grounds and Pitches Committee, headed by Daljit Singh, after Sunday’s fiasco. But it was a classic case of locking the stable after the horse has bolted. Even tiny centres around the world manage to produce pitches that last a full day’s cricket, but the capital of the game’s commercial superpower is unable to do so. The cancellation came at 11.20am, with Sri Lanka having scored 83/5. Both captains - MS Dhoni and Kumar Sangakkara - the match referee, and officials from the two cricket boards came to the conclusion that conditions were too dangerous for batsmen to allow the match to continue. By then, the Lankan batsmen had already taken numerous blows. Delhi was shamed and with the Commonwealth Games to be held next year, the incident was another upsetting turn of events for the Delhi government, which has been struggling to promote the Capital’s readiness as a quality sporting host. This was a farce waiting to happen as the BCCI failed to heed continuous uproar over poor pitch conditions at the venue ever since the T20 Champions League and the India-Australia ODI here on Oct 31. DDCA has for long been a hotbed of mismanagement and the BCCI’s track record isn’t too good either, with the lights going off at Eden Gardens in just the previous game. Incidentally, on December 25, 1997 the same two teams were involved in an identical situation at the Nehru Stadium in Indore, leading to a subsequent ICC ban on the venue. The BCCI immediately suspended its pitches and grounds committee, meaning chief Daljit Singh, who was involved role in the preparation of this Kotla surface, has been sacked. The DDCA’s own local curator Vijay Bahadur Mishra, its ground and pitches committee chairman, Chetan Chauhan and committee’s convener Sunil Dev too have quit. Daljit’s sacking, though, did not come about until another queer round of blame games between the DDCA and BCCI, with BCCI’s Rajeev Shukla telling reporters just minutes before secretary N Srinivasan issued the order to disband the committee that ‘‘it is a DDCA matter and as of now, Daljit retains his post’’. Chaos, confusion and total mismanagement prevailed for nearly an hour and a half after Thilina Kandamby decided he had had enough, after yet another delivery, this time from Sudeep Tyagi, hit one of the numerous grassy patches on the pitch and took off. Lankan captain Sangakkara and teammate Mahela Jayawardene, who was not playing in this game, immediately signalled for the players to come off, kickstarting intense mid-pitch discussions involving the curators - BCCI’s Daljit and local man Vijay Bahadur Mishra - the two captains, match referee Alan Hurst, the two coaches Gary Kirsten and Trevor Bayliss, and later DDCA and BCCI officials. Then the players left for the dressing room. Officials panicked once they realised Hurst was in agreement with the captains, and offered him a host of options, including a makeshift game on an equally underprepared adjacent pitch. When this did not work, they pleaded that the crowd could be difficult to control, but Hurst, and subsequently the captains, stood their ground, with Hurst arguing that the adjacent pitch too was substandard and unfit for any international game. Kept in the dark for too long, irate fans exploded, chanting anti-DDCA slogans, uprooting billboards and chairs, throwing missiles and water bottles and shouting that they wanted their money back. Sensing trouble and acting on police advice, the players were immediately whisked out of the ground, even before the game had been officially called off. The rioting continued even after a majority of spectators had left, until the electronic screen flashed that pitch conditions had led to a cancellation, and the DDCA had apologised and promised to refund ticket money. In fact, the game could have been called off earlier too, when Dilshan was struck a painful blow on the left arm off a Nehra delivery which shot up in the 10th over. That blow necessitated a trip to the hospital. Even earlier, Jayasuriya barely fended off a menacing Zaheer before being struck on the knuckles in the 16th over. Pushpakumara and Kandamby then found the going too hot, until sanity prevailed. The cancellation was a huge embarrassment for DDCA president and BJP bigwig Arun Jaitley, who was cajoled by the media to state his case. ‘‘We have to analyse in a cooler environment," he said.