Cricket fans go on rampage as India-Lanka ODI is called off due to bad pitch condition
New Delhi: Spectators of the fifth one-day-international (ODI) cricket match created a ruckus here after the match being played between India and Sri Lanka was abandoned due to imperfect pitch at Ferozeshah Kotla ground in the national capital.
The agitated cricket fans in the stadium turned violent and started throwing seats to
the ground in disgust. Their ire was over the abandonment of the match due to the
erratic state of the pitch. They shouted slogans and vandalised the stadium property
like chairs and banners apart from tossing water bottles in the playing area. "We
were here from 5.30 (local time) in the morning, just to watch the match but now
there is so much of commotion here. There is huge crowd of people. People are
agitated and they are breaking chairs of the stadium. Don't know what happened
exactly," said Ramprasad, an agitated spectator. "…Pitches are not good at all. They
have hired people on contract to build the pitches. They should be banned for 20
years," said Santa Singh, another protestor. Sri Lanka was 83/5 when the match had
to be abandoned due to the uneven bounce in the pitch which was proving dangerous
for batting side. During the match, Tillakaratne Dilshan (31) suffered a painful
blow on his left elbow off paceman Ashish Nehra, but bravely carried on after
treatment before he fell to spearhead fast bowler Zaheer Khan. Sanath Jayasuriya
(20), celebrating his 21st year in international cricket, suffered a blow on his
finger when he fended at debutant paceman Sudeep Tyagi as some deliveries leapt
up from a good length while others kept low. Tyagi got the ball to fly past batsman
Thilina Kandamby (12 not out) after hitting a crack, forcing the batsmen to speak
to the umpires. Match referee Alan Hurst had a mid-pitch conference with the field
umpires and the captains and suspended play before deciding to abandon the match.
Reacting over the incident, BCCI dissolved the pitch and ground committee. It
was the second occasion when a cricket match had to be called off due to poor
pitch. Prior to Delhi, similar incident occurred in Indore (Madhya Pradesh) when
match had to be called off and it was banned for two years. “DDCA has made a
mess
of the pitch. It should own up responsibility,” former Indian cricketer Bishan
Singh Bedi was quoted by NDTV as saying. Sri Lanka had toiled on the tricky
surface
to reach 83 for five after being put in to bat in foggy conditions when the match
was called off after the pitch was deemed too dangerous to play on due to
unpredictable
bounce. However, India won the series 3-1.
