The second day of the historic one-off Test match between Afghanistan and New Zealand is being hosted at the Shaheed Vijay Singh Pathik Stadium in Greater Noida was washed out in what can be termed as embarrassment.
After the first day of play was cancelled for similar reasons, one anticipated things to improve. However, with a heavy downpour last evening, the ground crew at the venue, which is staging its first Test match, struggled to get the pitch in shape.
At the time, approximately 50 groundsmen were working. The facility had about 15 personnel, with the rest coming in from other centers.
While both teams spent the majority of the day in the hotel, the groundsmen dug up the square near the mid-wicket area at the pavilion end, which had been a problem since the first day, and reinstalled fresh grass slabs.
The venue has already received criticism for its subpar drainage system and inadequate facilities; nonetheless, it did not rain much on Tuesday. Even though the weather stayed bright and sunny throughout the day, some portions of the outfield were so wet that the ground maintenance utilized two fans face-down to dry the place near the off-side.
However, those efforts proved insufficient, and match referee Javagal Srinath called off the day's activities at 3 p.m.
Menhajuddin Raz, Afghanistan's international cricket manager, remarked that Greater Noida has already hosted foreign teams such as Zimbabwe and Ireland, which influenced his decision to use the stadium.
“The BCCI offered us three venues - this one, Kanpur and Bengaluru, but we chose Greater Noida as it was most convenient in terms of logistics. It was closer to Delhi and also connectivity from Kabul was better.
This has always been our home venue. We have hosted teams like Zimbabwe, Ireland here since 2016. Recently, during our discussions with the BCCI, this ground was offered and this was the best logistical venue for us,” said Menhajuddin Naz, the international cricket manager at ACB.
The official also backed the decision and said ACB and New Zealand Cricket were ‘involved in the recce process’.
“Following the international standard, we did a recce four to six months before finalising the fixture. The issue cropped up due to heavy rains for the last few days. Also, it rained heavily last evening and it wasn’t looking good at all. Even if it would have been any other venue, they would have struggled to get it back on time,” he added.
The Greater Noida stadium has hosted 11 international matches thus far, but was suspended by the BCCI in 2017. However, throughout the last few days, it was clear that the facility lacked infrastructure and staff.
However, ACB authorities blamed it on the rain, claiming that as the weather worsened, they had even reached out to alternative venues for a last-minute relocation, which did not occur.
“We tried working on a solution to shift the game. We reached out to a few nearby venues and they all said that because of the same rain they will not be able to prepare the venue in 24 hours,” said Akbar Muhammad, ACB’s commercial head.
The stadium is managed by the Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority and not run by a state cricket association. The organisers have arranged more covers from the Arun Jaitley Stadium. According to the stadium officials, the ground has five super soppers. Three more were arranged by ACB from UPCA.
(Sportstar Inputs)
