A soggy and wet outfield at Greater Noida’s Shaheed Vijay Singh Pathik greeted Afghanistan and New Zealand on the opening day of the one-off Test. The sky was clear, the sun shone bright almost the entire day and most importantly, it didn’t rain at all. Despite these weather conditions, the opening day of the first-ever Test match between the two nations was called off due to a wet outfield.
Incessant rains on Sunday drenched the outfield so much that the entire daytime on Monday wasn’t enough to make the conditions playable. The management didn’t have enough covers to shield the whole ground from rain and a poor drainage system added to the woes of the ill-equipped and inexperienced ground staff, who implemented the traditional method of drying the wet patches before using the supersoppers. In fact, a sack of sawdust was more in action than the players.
The match officials conducted multiple inspections, a total of six, throughout the day, only to call play off without a ball being bowled. No show on the opening day of the one-off Test left the players and spectators equally frustrated.
The Kiwis kept on coming out of the dressing room in batches to check the dampness of the area close to the pitch and returned unpleased. The same was the case with Afghanistan coach Jonathan Trott seemed unimpressed as the groundsmen struggled.
The hosts dealt a major blow on Sunday as star batter Ibrahim Zadran injured his ankle in the final practice session of the team. It was later learned that he slipped on one of the wet patches of the ground and sustained the injury, not only getting ruled out of this game but also the upcoming 3-match ODI series against South Africa in the UAE later this month.
News18-CricketNext understands that the entire Afghanistan management isn’t pleased with the facilities at the venue. The website also learnt from a few ACB officials that they demanded this Test match to be played in either Dehradun or Lucknow, the venues where the team have already played Tests before. However, the Greater Noida facility was only available as the other venues were hosting their state T20 leagues.
“We have much better facilities back in Afghanistan where we host our domestic matches. But nothing has changed here. We were here in 2016. 8 years later, the curator, the ground staff… all are the same,” an official said on condition of anonymity.
Last month when News18-CricketNext spoke to the stadium’s pitch curator Amit Sharma, he was confident of tackling the adverse situations with a team of limited members. But how things unfolded on the first day of the fixtures puts the management in a spot of bother.
No action is likely on Tuesday
The toss has been scheduled for 9 AM tomorrow and the remaining four days will have 98 overs each starting at 9.30 AM, instead of 10 AM. However, it rained almost an hour after the first day of the Test match was called off. Hence, another dull day is expected when the teams return to the venue on Tuesday morning.
‘Hopefully, we get a good venue’
The stadium, banned by the BCCI in 2017, has served as the home ground for Afghanistan in the past and even hosted Duleep Trophy matches back in 2016. But going forward, Shahidi had urged the BCCI and ACB to arrange “a good home venue” for the team.
“India is our home, and when we host teams, other nations have played more cricket here. Hopefully, we will get a good venue here in India and if we restrict ourselves to one venue, it will be effective for us. Hopefully, the ACB and the BCCI will get us a good venue,” Shahidi had said during the pre-match presser on Sunday.
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