The Ground was not in our hands: Assam Cricket Association

Wet Patch Issue

Our Sports Reporter

GUWAHATI: Assam Cricket Association (ACA) today gave clean cheat to the curators and the grounds staffs who were involved with the preparation of the ground during India vs Sri Lanka T20I tie at the ACA stadium, Barsapra on Sunday. They also announced that there would be no enquiry on the entire episode.

The first game of the series was abandoned on Sunday because of damp pitch. The match was just about to start when the rain interrupted. Although ground men were able to ready the ground but the damage on the pitch was beyond repairable.

Talking to the media persons at the conference hall of ACA the secretary Devajit Saikia said,“ The ground was handed over to the umpires before the start and thereafter all the works done on the ground was held under the supervision of the umpires which is the rule of ICC. There was no say about the grounds men or curators.”

When asked whether it was the umpires who made the mistake to give proper attention, Saikia said, “We have no right to ask questions to the umpires. But according to the ICC rule the ground has to hand over to the umpires at the time of toss. They take the decisions afterwards.”

Still there is lot of confusion on the seepage of water into the pitch. The two reasons which were hard from most of the experts and the former players were-There is leakage in the cover and grounds staffs failed to remove the cover in proper way. There may not be so much justification on the first reason as the ACA officials said that same cover was used from the beginning and if there was any leackage water could also seepage into the pitch earlier also as city witnessed rain in the morning on Sunday.

The second reason is more justified. But Saikia today categorically denied that there was any fault from the ground staff. The possible reasons he felt were: “ The Super sopper had been brought too close to the pitch and it could sprinkle water on it or due to sudden rain grounds men were not able to put blanket on the pitch before putting cover on it and the moisture that remained below the blanket may damage the pitch.”

But the question is if moisture is the culprit then why it was not spread to the entire pitch? When a journalist raised the point Saikia said: May be more water deposited below the ground at that particular spot.”

The secretary was also added that although not a single ball being bowled in the game but the ACA will not suffer any financial loss as the entire match was ensured.

Meanwhile the president of the ACA Romen Dutta today denied that the association is getting huge financial assistance from the BCCI every year. He said, “ We are running in debt as the earlier committee took special advances from the BCCI around Rs 53.5 crore in 2014 and not a single rupee was returned although they were instructed to return the money in six instalments. “We have decided to enquiry the entire matter through the CM vigilance cell,” said Dutta.

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