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| Sunday, 4 December 2005 |
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Cyclone Baaz leaves trail of destruction - no play on day two Sa'adi Thawfeeq reporting from India CHENNAI, December 3, Chennai seemed to have weathered the worst of Cyclone Baaz which had left its trail of destruction at the Chinnaswamy Stadium where no play was possible for the second successive day in the first cricket Test between Sri Lanka and India here today. The heavy rains experienced on Friday had left the uncovered parts of the outfield waterlogged and for any play to get underway and it needed hot sunshine throughout the day to dry the wet and slippery surface. The rains ceased by morning today and there was some hope when the sun came out rather nervously, but only for a short time. The two umpires Daryl Harper and Mark Benson made their first inspection for the day at 1.15 p.m. and decided to call off play due to a wet outfield as once again dark clouds started to hover around the ground threatening to nullify the efforts of the ground staff who were working round the clock to get the match started. They even used a hot coal iron on the pitch to dry out a wet patch the size of a big circle just short off a good length. "There is no problem with the square the only problem is the outfield where there is moisture on the surface with a lot of mud on it. Even the super-sopper wouldn't do much on it," said umpire Harper. "We are not expecting the conditions to improve that much to have a start on time by 9 a.m. tomorrow. If we don't have rain between now and then hopefully we'll get some play on the third day. But if it rains now and tonight then things will be looking very doubtful right through," he said. Indian skipper Rahul Dravid said that he was disappointed that there has been no play on the first two days of the Test and sympathized with the public of Chennai who had come even today hoping for some play. Dravid said that it was also hard on the players to be cooped up either in the dressing room or the hotel room. "It is difficult as players for us also. You are pretty keyed up on the first day of a Test match, nervous and raring to go," said Dravid. "But when you lose a couple of days play like this it tends to bring down the adrenalin and you find yourself very difficult to pick yourself up not knowing when the game will actually start. But then again we are professionals and we should be accustomed to such changes." The new regime administering Indian cricket following Tuesday's Cricket Board elections announced that state associations could swap matches by mutual consent. But in the case of Chennai the announcement had come a little too late. If not this Test could have been switched over to become the third in the series which would have made it more logical for the Sri Lankan team to have returned home soon after the match. Whatever little hopes the spectators had of preventing the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA) from holding international cricket matches during the monsoonal season was thrown out of the window when the city court declined to restrain the TNCA from conducting the first cricket Test between Sri Lanka and India at Chennai on Friday. The city judge dismissing with costs two interlocutory applications filed by an irate spectator M. Suresh Babu said the court would not interfere with the event when the TNCA had completed all arrangements to host the Test match. The judge said the petitioner came to court at the eleventh hour, a day before the match and added that no irreparable loss would be caused if the match was not interfered with. Also, the Supreme Court had repeatedly held that eleventh hour petitions should not be entertained. P. S. Raman representing the TNCA said that they had one of the best drainage facilities in the country and it had modern equipment to drain the rainwater. He said cricket like other games was played subject to the weather. He added that tickets were sold more on a daily basis and that season tickets for the whole match 'was not trust down everybody's throat.' The main suit was postponed for December 29 for further hearing. Kanpur's inability to host the third cricket Test between Sri Lanka and India from December 18-22 has placed the Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association (UPCA) with the grave risk from being debarred as a venue to hold international cricket matches in the future. The UPCA indicated to the Indian Cricket Board that the Green Park ground is state-owned and has not been released to them to prepare it for the Test. The chairman of the tour program and fixtures committee of the newly-elected body who is also the vice president of BCCI, Shashank Manohar was quoted in the media saying: "I think UPCA's status as a Test match centre should stand suspended until it acquires its own property and develops it for cricket matches." Manohar also hinted that it will be the turn of Gujarat CA to host the Test match by the principal of rotation. If that is the case then Ahmedabad which staged the fifth one-day international between Sri Lanka and India last month will be the likely venue for the third and final Test. A final decision was awaited at the tour program and fixtures committee meeting scheduled for today in Mumbai. |
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