Even as the Indian national cricket team flies off to New Zealand for their upcoming cricket series there, assured of enjoying the best in 5 star luxury and their every requirement taken care of, domestic cricketer and cricketers face quite different treatment, and very different facilities. The pitch fiasco that caused quite a cricket controversy recently and which took place at Rajkot during the Mumbai - Gujarat Ranji one-day match, proves this fact.

Apart from less than satisfactory accommodation and provisions for the players, there was the problem about the pitch, which was sought to be explained away by saying that it happened in Antigua (in an international match) so it can happen here, which has to be worst, most negligent excuse for a less than acceptable pitch.

The story is that the pitch at Rajkot was so bad that both teams took the decision to stop play mid way during the game and continue the game on the adjoining pitch which was ‘slightly better’ according to reports.

Now the fact is that the BCCI spends a lot of money to import pitch and ground maintenance equipment and supply it to the different cricket associations. So it is not as if the centres lack the resources to do organise a proper tournament, they merely lack the will to do so; they lack the care and supervision required to make the requisite arrangements. Fingers are now being pointed at West Zone representative of the committee Dhiraj Parsana, to seek answers as to whether the designated officials carried out their instructions and duties.

And what of the bad food that does not reach the players on time? That cannot be put down to anything except gross bad management and a careless attitude. Again insufficiency of funds is not an issue, which is one that admittedly plagues a lot of other sports in India. Mismanagement and a wrongful use of funds is what plagues domestic cricket in India.  

While pitch fiascos such as these will actually impede the match being played, when the players themselves are not comfortable and well looked after, their individual performance is bound to suffer. The BCCI perhaps needs to put in place a system that makes things more transparent and officials more accountable for what they do and what their responsible for.

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3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."

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