Kotla mess: ignoring the Russian roulette

It was quite an ironic moment. There was Mahendra Singh Dhoni accepting the mace as proof of India's top ranking as Test nation. Big smiles all around, everyone at the presentation happy, and the politicians trying to get their share of the glory they didn't work for.

Yet hours earlier, India's often narcissistic politically minded cricket administrators were given a serious elbow jolt as they faced embarrassing international ridicule over the Ferozshah Kotla abandoned match fiasco because of substandard pitch conditions. All of which has been an accident waiting to happen.

For one thing, former South African fast bowler Allan Donald would have taken one look at it and refused to bowl for fear of seriously hurting someone. It would have bothered him had he put someone in hospital and despite the claims by those pandering to the obsequious line adopted by certain Delhi District Cricket Association, the trampoline style bounce when the ball hit the grassy patches, it could have easily done so.

As it is Delhi's discredited cricket hierarchy are in panic mode in what can only been described as bizarre efforts to cover the gaping cracks in their flawed association, they are like politicians who have been caught in a flagrant lie. Yet unable to accept culpability of responsibility.

As the possible threat of International Cricket Council slapping a ban on the capital city's venue looms, political wannabe and DDCA vice-president Chetan Chauhan adopted the typical gung-ho approach when he accused the Sri Lankan players of being "chicken" – in other words cowards if you check your thesaurus – because they were afraid of being beaten in the abandoned fifth limited overs international game because of poor pitch conditions.

He also used old Raj style jingoism to attack the ICC’s match referee Alan Hurst's decision to call off the controversial game in the middle of the 24th over of the Sri Lanka innings with the tourists staggering at 83 for five. Understandably, the ‘chicken’ label has been rejected in Colombo by the Sri Lankan captain Kumar Sangakkara and other members of the team as 'contemptible'.

Yet there seems to be certain connivance between Chauhan and Ajay Jadeja over this issue of the game being abandoned and whether or not conditions were safe. Well, as they weren’t in the firing like facing Zaheer Khan or Ashish Nehra how would they know.

This gives the impression of how the DDCA had started wildly investing in a verbal style Ponzi style scheme, promising to deliver rewards through a lot of rhetoric to protect their image but failing to do so when the time came to payout in such a way the fallout could be catastrophic for the image of the game in India. Serves them right as other players condemned the conditions and Dhoni admitted there had been a joint decision to call off the game. He explained it clear enough with the comment how Hurst had decided to abandon the fifth one-day international against Sri Lanka at Ferozshah Kotla after consultation with both the teams with the Indian captain, saying on his website "he track at Ferozshah Kotla was indeed bad".

As for an accident waiting to happen, on October 14, in my weekly Carte Blanch column, headlined 'Poor pitches 'Hardselling' Champions League' and criticised by some readers for the strident views, it contained a warning which expressed the concerns of what might happen did in fact happen.

"What this particular event (CL) has so far shown is how the organisers may yet end up with two foreign teams contesting the final – Cape Cobras against the New South Wales Blues. There have been several mismatched games, but that is understandable. The atrocious conditions at Farozshah Kotla are inhibiting general strokeplay and top batsmen have struggled to get past the half-century mark, and those who do, rely in their skilled technique developed at first-class and not slogs levels such as this.

"Is this what the Indian board want? After all Kotla is to host a limited overs game against Sri Lanka in late December and possibly a Test against South Africa in March and producing a poor quality surface as this is dangerous as it gives the venue the reputation of producing sub-standard pitches. It’s like being involved in a tricky game of Russian roulette."

And while the DDCA and their political sycophants will deny it, Russian roulette is what it became with the ball creating untold lurking dangers. This is not a way to run a cricket game and Chauhan needs to acknowledge the dangers. It all nice and cosy to stand in front of stack of TV cameras, looking affronted and doing what the Australians practice so well on the field 'sledge' the opposition who were already on their way home.

The October 14 column also pointed out, "It shows though that although pitches may have changed to a more organised state, modern batsman, with all their skills and class cannot play genuine strokes, it seriously makes you wonder what those organising such a tournament are attempting to achieve. Poor batting conditions makes for a poor contest and teams batting first usually winning the game. It explains what a farce it is, and becomes a boring spectacle as well."

In the game that was abandoned, it was only Sanath Jayasuriya’s skilled batsmanship supported by his 20 years of experience that enabled him to score 31 runs before the game was called off. And watching the ball lift quickly off an awkward length and catching him unawares, hitting his glove. But Chauhan didn't particularly care whether a batsman was injured or not. All he is worried about is how he and the association of which he is vice-president has been caught out in what is a wilful act of negligence, denying culpability for what has been exposed as a failed system.

According to a confidential report sent to the ICC who examined the venue in November, it appears that the main problem is the quality of the soil used in the last two years: it is substandard and has been badly prepared. It means that whoever is at fault needs to answer a few questions as well as how do they play a game on an untested surface.

It is amazing that India, and here fingers need to be pointed at the board of control as well as the reprobate DDCA, with all their money, manage to get the basics wrong. This gives the impression how because of their internal politics and the actual cricket concerns are not a high priority. This will be denied of course, but denial is the easiest form of covering up the flaws. It shows a system that is no only incompetent but run by those who feed on their narcissism to the detriment of the game.