MATCH REPORTS
STAT SHEET
DIARY
OTHER SPORTS
SLIDE SHOW
PEOPLE
DEAR REDIFF

Bad pitch, lousy facilities: Haryana forfeits one dayer

The Board of Control for Cricket in India announced on Monday that the Haryana Cricket Association has forfeited the one-day international between Australia and Zimbabwe because it had neglected the pitch at Faridabad.

The Delhi and District Cricket Association, which has been at loggerheads with the BCCI, will now host the tie.

The DDCA has been also allotted the final to be played at the Ferozeshah Kotla ground on April 14.

BCCI secretary Jaywant Lele said the decision to withdraw the match, scheduled on April 11, from the HCA was taken following a negative report of the Faridabad pitch by the Board's ground and pitch committee headed by Kapil Dev, himself a former Haryana skipper. The Board had promised Kapil Dev that it would abide whatever decision his committee took.

The BCCI programme and fixtures committee, which met in Bombay under the chairmanship of Board president Raj Singh Dungarpur, approved the decision. The committee took strong view of the "nasty" letter written to Lele by HCA secretary Ranbhir Singh Bansi Lal Mahendra.

Lele, in defence, produced a letter from Kapil Dev which, he said, exposed the HCA and vindicated the BCCI position. Kapil's letter said his committee felt that the Faridabad pitch, ground and stadium facilities were not up to international standards, 'therefore we feel the match should be shifted immediately.'

Kapil Dev, who was present at Monday's meeting, said the HCA was not prepared to spend money to improve the conditions, though promising on three occasions to do so.

Lele said the HCA was specifically told not to overuse the pitch and the same message was conveyed to former state player Sarkar Talwar. Kapil Dev's three visits to the ground bore no results and even the umpires room which was marked as unsuitable remained in a pathetic condition. The HCA did not bother to enlarge the scoreboard for the spectators's convenience, the Board secretary said. The pitch too remained sub-standard, he added.

The HCA, Lele said, has not only lost its turn to host an international match, "but more than that they have lost a very good chance to swell their coffers by about Rs 4 million (inclusive of the sale of television rights of Rs 3 million).

UNI