Kotla ODI cricket match fiasco – Who is responsible?

While the investigation, allegations and counter-allegations are ON; let us analyse from the recent news and opinions floating around -- who should be held responsible and accountable for the poor performance of pitch and abandoned cricket match on 27th Dec in Kotla, Delhi.




DDCA:

The members of the pitch and ground committee of the Delhi & Districts Cricket Association (DDCA) have put in their papers after taking responsibility for the pitch fiasco which led to the abandonment of the match. Fine, DDCA was directly responsible for creation and maintenance of the pitch. But this pitch was deemed inappropriate to be played in November, 2009 by ICC after the Champions League. ICC asked for a tremendous effort to be made on this pitch for the 2011 World Cup matches. I feel, 27 Dec, 09 was a very short duration for a venue as an International match.

BCCI:

BCCI was very quick in suspending the DDCA members. It could have taken proactive measures by not hosting the match on this venue at all. We cannot deny some amount of politics in tarnishing each other’s image by DDCA and BCCI. Who has a larger stake, only time will witness this.

According to CricInfo.com “The recent history of the Kotla track had done little to recommend its hosting of another international fixture. The curators, both at the ground and the BCCI's head of pitches committee Daljit Singh, have on more than one occasion said that this is a freshly relaid pitch and will take time to settle in. Despite that, the ground hosted the Champions League T20 on low and slow tracks, and an ODI between India and Australia in October.”

Sri Lankan Captain:

In the past matches have held at even worst conditions of pitch. Pitches in Jamaica and Perth have also led to injuries due to uneven bounces. But teams still continue to play on those venues. Is it because the Sri Lankan team had lost 5 wickets in quick succession led the captain to call the match off?

Match Referee:

DDCA was ready to prepare a parallel strip for the pitch. Match Referee put off such a request.

DDCA Chairman Chetan Chauhan also contended that the adjacent strip had been offered to ensure a new match. "We offered another wicket and said 'give us one hour and you would have it ready'," he said. "But he [Match Referee, Hurst] decided to call it off.

"The match should have continued because some 45,000 people were in the ground and another 2-3 crore were glued to the television. An honest effort should have been made to save the match."

Conclusion:

Whoever is the responsible person or the group, spectators and cricket lovers suffered the most! Apart from cricket fans those who must have lost their stake are the match officials (for poor monitoring), BCCI (for lost its image), DDCA (for lost revenue and image), broadcasters (for loosing revenue on advertisements) and the sponsors (for loosing the advertising opportunities).

Cricket is followed in India like a religion. Any such goof-ups add to tremendous agitation and frustration. This is evident from the follow-up actions by the spectators on the ground and other fans off the field.