Kotla gets away lightly after pitch fiasco
The Ferozeshah Kotla in Delhi got away quite lightly after the recent pitch fiasco during a Sri Lanka-India ODI as the International Cricket Council (ICC) neither banned the venue nor imposed any financial penalty. It will now stage four matches as planned in the 2011 World Cup.
In a statement on January 21, the ICC said: “Following the conclusion of a full investigation into the circumstances that led to the abandonment of a One-Day International match between India and Sri Lanka on 27 December 2009, the ICC confirms that no international cricket will be played at the New Delhi ground until the end of December 2010.”
The fifth and final ODI was stopped after the pitch was deemed too dangerous to play.
It added: “The ICC received a submission from the BCCI assuring it that no international match is scheduled and therefore no international match will be played at the ground until the end of 2010. Keeping this in mind, the ICC has decided to endorse this action on the part of BCCI as part of its concluding report.”
“In any case, we were not planning any international matches at the Kotla this year,” a BCCI official said. “So this isn’t really an issue.”
ICC pitch consultant Andy Atkinson will work with local officials to “oversee remedial work” ahead of the World Cup.
But, in the meantime, the Kotla will host both IPL team Delhi Daredevils’ home matches and domestic games. Delhi Daredevils’ COO Amrit Mathur confirmed this. “We are looking forward to the IPL games at the Kotla,” Mathur said.
