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Journalism of Courage
Delhi’s cricket lovers will have to wait at least six months to see live international action. The Delhi District Cricket Association has set itself a seven-day deadline from today to decide whether the Kotla stadium will be ready for the India-Australia Test match in September— but it might as well save itself the trouble and take that call now.
When this reporter visited Kotla on Wednesday afternoon, the stadium resembled a construction site. The in-field is now the ‘‘steel yard’’, as a sign testifies, the storage space for the raw material. Everywhere there is debris, either earth or iron. The area where the pitches will be laid has been dug one foot deep; there are five more feet of digging to go befoer the pitch can be re-laid.
‘‘We will take a call in the next seven days’’, said DDCA secretary SP Bansal. ‘‘We will be informing the Board if at all we are ready to host the Test match.’’
So why not do it now and spare everyone the trouble? Bansal appeared optimistic and took pains to point out that it wasn’t as incredulous as it sounds. ‘‘It will take a day to clear the ground, another 24 hours to dig up the outfield and after that growing grass might take a couple of months.’’
There was, of course, one condition: ‘‘If it rains in the next seven days, I don’t think we can make it.’’ It rained two hours after Bansal said this.
While DDCA banks on the belated monsoon and their quick-fix scheme, the BCCI’s pitches committee chief Venkat Sundaram was in a more pragmatic state of mind. While refusing to comment on Kotla specifically, Venkat said the minimum time needed to prepare a Test wicket is ‘‘about six months, that too when everything is ideal.’’
While the DDCA is cutting it fine with the pitch preparation, they haven’t considered testing the wicket. Venkat said he believed that ‘‘Test matches cannot be played on virgin pitches.’’ The Kanpur case last year is still fresh in the mind: the New Zealand Test was shifted to Ahmedabad since the newly-laid track at Green Park had seen no action.
Pitch apart, the increased capacity of the stadium (up to 55,000) has meant additional problems for DDCA. Kotla is famous for the chaotic scenes during international games but Bansal said the ‘park and ride’ idea — take a shuttle bus from a parking lot located some distance away — is the solution. ‘‘Spectators can park their vehicles at Pragati Maidan, Ram Lila ground, Rajghat, Nehru Stadium and Aruna Asaf Ali Road and board a shuttle bus to Kotla,’’ he says.
This idea awaits the clearance of the Delhi Urban Arts Commission. ‘‘We haven’t yet cleared the vehicular moment and parking aspect of the new stadium,’’ DUAC secretary Dinanath told The Indian Express.
None of this fazed Bansal. ‘‘The Australia Test is not the end of the world for us, there is South Africa next and Pakistan after that,’’ he said.
Which brings up an interesting point: If, as likely, Delhi misses out on the Australia Test, who benefits? Eden Gardens, the stronghold of Mr Jagmohan Dalmiya.
