Greater Noida stadium director ends silence days after allegation of ‘huge mess’ left BCCI in hot water over AFG vs NZ Test

The Afghanistan-New Zealand Test match is set to make history, but for the wrong reasons. Incessant rain led to the game being abandoned ahead of schedule on Thursday for the second day in a row, leaving the match without action for four consecutive days. The first-ever Test match between the two nations is set to be called off. Only seven matches in Test history have had the misfortune of being abandoned without a ball being bowled, the last one being in 1998, also involving New Zealand.

There was hardly any rain on the fourth day in Greater Noida, even as most of the pitch remained under cover, but the overnight rain caused a few puddles in the outfield, exposing the stadium’s lack of preparedness. The situation was largely the same on the first two days as well, forcing the ground staff to use electric fans to dry out the wet areas and even dig and fill a wet outfield area with dry soil and fresh turf. Amid their unsuccessful efforts, an ACB official described the situation as “a huge mess”, as reported by PTI.

Another ACB official told The Indian Express that the BCCI had rejected their request to host the match in Lucknow or Dehradun as the Indian board had suggested alternative venues such as Bengaluru and Kanpur. However, speaking to reporters after the second day, ACB international cricket director Menhajuddin Naz clarified that Afghanistan had chosen the Shaheed Vijay Singh Pathik Sports Complex in Greater Noida due to logistical reasons.

Greater Noida Stadium Director Breaks Silence

Amid allegations of mismanagement, Sports Complex Director Shaheed Vijay Singh Pathik, speaking to radio channel 93.5 Red FM, hit back at the criticism, saying that the sceptics are making such remarks because they need content.

“The Afghanistan team arrived on August 30 and played a 3-day intra-squad match from September 1-2 where they scored over 300 runs. We have delivered the pitch as per the request of coach Jonathan Trott,” the person concerned said. “The rain is the major problem which is not our responsibility. The nearest stadium to this is Delhi (Arun Jaitley Stadium) where torrential rains have led to the cancellation of matches (DPL 2024). The downpour is so heavy that water is entering the tarpaulins as it envelops the entire pitch.

“It’s not that Afghanistan doesn’t know about this stadium. It’s been their stadium for three years and they must have trained in the rain. If their board hadn’t known about it, they wouldn’t have approved this venue to host the match.”

The RJ responded to the statement saying: “Jitna to team humari nahi kheli, itna to inhone khela hai (Indian cricket team never played, but Afghans did),” to which the stadium manager replied: “Kuch connection ko content chahiye hotein hain, unko reality nahi jaan na (People just need content and don’t want to know reality).