Before the fiasco,2 reports,2 warnings

The Delhi & District Cricket Association (DDCA) may have received at least two separate warnings on what lay in store on Sunday....

The Delhi & District Cricket Association (DDCA) may have received at least two separate warnings on what lay in store on Sunday. The first,in the form of the International Cricket Councils report after a routine World Cup check last month. And the second,from former BCCI Pitches and Grounds Committee chief Venkat Sundaram who claims to have sounded the alarm bells a week ago.

While the average age of a pitch is 20 years,the Kotla pitch has been relaid entirely four times in the last five years under four different curators Radhey Shyam,Chetan Chauhan,Prabir Mukherjee and Daljit Singh with clay and mud coming in from four different locations each time.

The ICC report,a copy of which is with The Indian Express,states: During the Champions League and the India vs Australia ODI series,it was well documented that the performance and condition of the pitches at the stadium were a cause of concern for the players.

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There is an ODI at this venue on 27th December 2009 and considerable improvement of the pitch block will be required by then to make the pitch provided more acceptable.

The local board favour replanting the pitches with local grass,which they hope will solve the problem… To simply replant without this major renovation of the surface would be a major miscalculation,and would result in inadequate pitches at a later date.

It also goes on to talk about the problems in communication between the local ground staff and the BCCIs representative. It was apparent when speaking with the local officials that they are reluctant to openly discuss the problems they are having with the pitch and that they are to some extent in variance with the BCCI Pitch Consultant (Daljit Singh) regarding how they are to move forward to resolve the problems with this surface.

Sundaram,meanwhile,told The Indian Express that he had,in a hand-written note to president Arun Jaitley,raised apprehensions about the manner of preparing the Ferozeshah Kotla pitch for this game and that he had even offered his services to help. He claimed his warning went unheeded.

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Yes,I had written to the president over my unhappiness about the preparation of the pitch and the kind of grass transplanted. I offered to inspect and help and he was kind enough to reply and requested me to coordinate with officials but things couldnt materialise, Sundaram said.

According to audit reports,the pitch and ground preparation cost DDCA Rs 13,84,000 in 2007,Rs 13,54,000 in 2008 and nearly Rs 50 lakh in the current fiscal.

Meanwhile,the DDCA is contemplating relaying the entire pitch again,though Sundaram feels this can be avoided. Right now the best option is to repair it and only if it is unavoidable should we dig it up again.