The third day (Wednesday) of the only Test match between Afghanistan and New Zealand has also been cancelled due to heavy rain. The first two days of the game at the stadium located in the Shaheed Vijay Singh Pathik Sports Complex in Greater Noida were cancelled without a single ball being bowled due to wet outfield, raising serious questions about the preparations of the venue. In view of the weather, the match officials have also ruled out the possibility of any kind of play on Wednesday.
However, after the test match between Afghanistan and New Zealand failed to start, the future of the stadium of Shaheed Vijay Singh Pathik Sports Complex in Greater Noida will largely depend on the report of match referee Javagal Srinath. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is often blamed for such flaws in the stadium, but this time the entire responsibility for the mess lies with the host Afghanistan Cricket Board. Find out how…
The BCCI had offered the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru and the Green Park Stadium in Kanpur as options to the Afghanistan Cricket Board, but the Afghanistan Cricket Board chose this venue citing issues such as familiarity of its players with the venue and low cost. The Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) selected Greater Noida as the venue due to its proximity to Delhi and Kabul (comparatively).
BCCI has no role in this Test match. This venue was completely the choice of the Afghanistan Cricket Board and the Greater Noida Authority had to provide them with international level facilities. According to sources, BCCI has not hosted any of its domestic matches here since 2019 (Vijay Hazare Trophy). Given the poor conditions here, the chances of hosting any match in the near or distant future are negligible.
What will happen to the Greater Noida stadium now?
The International Cricket Council (ICC) will follow the standard protocol for any international venue, where the match referee’s report will decide the further course of action. So far, not a single ball has been bowled in this Test match. Referee Srinath will have to assess the wet outfield of the ground, where the drainage is not as good as other international venues. The stadium also lacks a super sopper to soak up water from the ground along with adequate cover to protect the outfield from rain. The lack of adequately trained ground staff has further aggravated the problems of this venue.
According to the ICC ‘Pitch and Outfield Monitoring Process’ implemented in November 2023, ‘After each match, the match referee (in this case Srinath) will send the form related to the pitch and outfield report to the manager of the ICC Senior Cricket Operator. The ‘Pitch and Outfield Report Form’ includes comments from the umpires and captains of both the teams along with the match referee. In such a situation, it will now be interesting to see how New Zealand captain Tim Southee reacts.
Within 14 days of receiving this report, the ICC Senior Cricket Manager sends it to the host board and informs them about the demerit points imposed on the stadium. According to the ICC article, ‘If the Match Referee has reason to rate the pitch and/or outfield as unsatisfactory or unfit, demerit points will be given in accordance with the guidelines for rating pitches at the host venue.’ These demerit points remain effective for five years.
What happened on the first two days of the test match?
After a whole day of play was washed out due to a wet outfield, the ground staff dug up two to three feet near mid-on. They tried applying dry soil and artificial grass on the affected area, but it was not ready.
The whole outfield did not seem suitable for international cricket as it was full of mud. According to the information available with Aaj Tak, the ground staff consists of 20-25 members and 15 are outsourced. The ground has five super soppers, two of which are automatic and three are manual. Even the covers and fans were rented from a tent house.
Ground staff used table fans to dry the ground. The lack of modern facilities extended beyond the ground, impacting operations off the pitch. There was a shortage of drinking water, electricity supply and even ladies toilets.
Greater Test matches are not a part of WTC…
Although it is not a part of the World Test Championship (WTC), it is affiliated to the ICC. Run by the Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority, the stadium hosted the pink ball Duleep Trophy match in 2016. However, it was banned by the BCCI in September 2017 due to match fixing during corporate matches. Since then, no BCCI-affiliated match has been held here. The stadium has previously served as a home ground for Afghanistan. However, the stadium does not come under the Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association.
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