Flashback to another fiasco

MUMBAI, December 25: The dubious history that Indore created today when the India-Sri Lanka One-Day International was abandoned because of ...

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MUMBAI, December 25: The dubious history that Indore created today when the India-Sri Lanka One-Day International was abandoned because of an unfit, unplayable pitch, made the memory flash back to January 7, 1988 when another ODI ended in an unprecedented mess.

The match in question was the India-West Indies one-dayer at Motera, Ahmedabad. Indian skipper Ravi Shastri went out to toss and gave his eleven to West Indies captain Vivian Richards when the latter questioned him about the necessity of exchanging teams for an unofficial match.

Shastri, at first, thought it was a joke but later realised that the joke was on him. It was only when he rushed up to Bapu Nadkarni (chairman of the national selection committee) that he was enlightened about the status of the match! One could well gauge his embarrassment.

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Not one to take things lying down, Shastri later made it clear to the national media that the match was not part of the Charminar Challenge overs-limit series — a fact he was not aware of till Richards told him during the toss.

It was a crying shame as the West Indies were aware of the changed status during the third Test at Calcutta.

Fearing trouble from the volatile Ahmedabad crowd, the officials made no announcement. An unwell Mohammed Azharuddin, who was in the original eleven, was rested for the `unofficial match’ as the spectators were oblivious of the happenings.

The Indian players expressed their protest against the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) by not accepting their allowance for the match. The media, too, were furious that they were made to come for a match that was not part of the One-day series.

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In contradiction to what skipper Shastri said, BCCI joint secretary C Nagaraj said that the match was official.

It was later deemed that the match was an official One-Day International but not part of the Charminar Challenge series.