GUWAHATI: Clearly, you cannot fight Nature. When us little johnnies want to play and it happens to rain, all we can do is pray that it goes away and comes again another day.
And so it not only rained that fateful day of the Guwahati T20I between India and Sri Lanka, but the rains timed itself to such perfection that the match got delayed initially. On removing the covers that were laid over the pitch, there was a clear wet patch and water had seeped in.
An official of the Assam Cricket Association (ACA), the host of match, under the condition of anonymity, told G Plus, "As is the norm, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) took charge of the stadium seven days prior to the match. For the match in Guwahati, the Board had appointed one Ashish Bhowmik as the chief pitch curator under whom the local grounds men worked. Admittedly, the water seeped into the pitch because of a basic error and negligence on the part of some grounds men who removed the cover wrongly allowing the collected water to spill onto the pitch.”
Now, as per BCCI rules, a wet pitch can be dried only by the natural process of blowing air and no other processes are allowed. This was stated clearly by the ACA official. While the rest of the field was dried using super-soppers, the same machines could not be used on the playing pitch for fear of causing damages to it. With the enthusiastic crowd showing extraordinary patience, it was imperative on the part of the ACA to get the pitch dried at the earliest – that too by blowing only.
It was at this juncture that one official showing exemplary ingenuity and resourcefulness managed to grab a hair dryer from the Star Sports make-up room. The identity of this clever person however is unknown. The hair dryer found its way to the Barsapara Stadium pitch and was used liberally and generously. Unfortunately, it did not give the desired results. Neither did a steam iron which also found its way to the pitch. The source from where the steam iron came is not known however.
As time passed, the pitch could not be dried to perfection – hair dryer or steam iron notwithstanding – and the match had to be called off.
Netizens later started trolling the ground staff with funny memes for resorting to a hair dryer to dry a cricket pitch.
Former cricketer turned commentator, Akash Chopra lashed out at the ACA for its negligence in maintaining the cricket pitch and said, “It’s nothing but a schoolboy error. The 22 yards is a sacrosanct place and they have left a few holes in the cover as some amount of water seeped in. It is some amount of negligence. You can’t have an excuse at this level.”
