The last time India and Sri Lanka played an ODI at the Ferozeshah Kotla was during the 1996 World Cup. The stadium was bursting at the seams and plenty of valid ticket holders were left evading police batons, fretting and fuming as they made their way back home.
On Sunday, however, they were in a position to vent their ire after being denied a proper game. Advertisement banners were pulled down, chairs smashed and plastic bottles seen strewn around the ground after the match was prematurely called off.
In that match 13 years ago, Sanath Jayasuriya thrashed the bowlers and hurried the end of Manoj Prabhakar’s international career. This time around, though, it was a matter of survival for the man from Matara. The left-hander was twice hit by rising deliveries and evaded a few more before his departure.
Sunil Gavaskar, who was part of the TV commentary team, was among the first to react when approached by the media.
“The tufts of grass on the pitch are a batting hazard. The batsmen were lucky to get away without serious injuries as the ball was rising from spots around good length,” said Gavaskar.
“The last ball faced by (Thilina) Kandamby was a really dangerous one and had that been a right-hander, it would have been difficult to avoid,” he said about the delivery from Sudeep Tyagi that flew above the head on the off-side and marked the end of the match. Former India skipper Bishan Bedi, a past secretary of the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA), said he was shocked.
“The DDCA is responsible for the debacle and is answerable to fans. I wonder how a pitch that was not used for Ranji matches could be used for an international fixture,” said Bedi, referring to the fact that Delhi had been hosting ties at other venues while preparing this one.
The pitches, used for an ODI against Australia and the Champions League since being re-worked on from April, were fiddled with once again over the past two months. On advice from the BCCI, pitches committee chief Daljit Singh and curator Vijay Bahadur Mishra decided to introduce American grass on the pitch. In the lead up to the match, most of the grass was removed but patches of green remained that made for variable bounce.
Former India players Abbas Ali Baig, Syed Kirmani and Maninder Singh joined in the criticism, asking for the DDCA officials to own up.
DDCA president Arun Jaitley said that tickets will be refunded. “We don’t want to start a blame game. We offer our apologies for organising the match on this pitch,” said Jaitley.
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