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Faridabad fails to find favour

"Give a dog a bad name, and hang him!"

That is how cricket authorities in Faridabad describe the decision of the Board of Control for Cricket in India to shift the venue of the Zimbabwe-Australia one day international from this venue to Delhi.

District Cricket Association president B K Panigrahi, and secretary Sarkar Talwar, are sore at the BCCI for taking the match away from them "without any valid reason". If the facilities at the Nahar Singh Stadium were so poor, they ask, how was it the BCCI allotted it a game in the first place?

"We did not ask for the match, but now, needlessly, not only has the game been taken away from us, but our reputation has taken a beating following the needless criticism of the stadium," the two officials told the media.

What hurts most, they say, was the attempt to project Faridabad as a primitive venue. "We have been getting calls from all over the country asking us for explanations as to how matters had come to this pass."

After taking the media, visiting the ground from Delhi, around the place and showing them the pitch and the facilities, the officials said that while it may not be the best in the world, it could certainly rank among the best in the country, capable of hosting matches at any level.

Till now, eight international matches have been held here including four one dayers but thus far, they pointed out, there have been no complaints. Even Sunil Gavaskar, on a visit here during the inspections of venues for the 1996 World Cup venues, was all praise, the authorities said, for the ground.

Sarkar Talwar, who is the official in overall charge of the stadium, said the BCCI's pitches and grounds committee had not done justice to the Nahar Singh Stadium. "We deserved better treatment from the committee which included our own Kapil Dev and Ashok Malhorta," Sarkar said.

It was Sarkar who took it upon himself to invite mediapersons to the venue to inspect at first hand the conditions. "How else could we dispel the wrong impression which has been created all over the country by this fiasco?" Sarkar demanded. "As per the report, it would appear that this is not a stadium, but a municipal park with trenches and pot-holes."

The visiting media was quite impressed by a lush green outfield, modern dressing rooms with all amenities, electronic scoreboard and a manual one, as prescribed, at opposite ends of the ground.

Talking of the sequence of events, Sarkar said two members of the committee, Ashok Malhotra and Daljit Singh, first visited the ground on March 16, for about 10 minutes. Later, the full committee -- Kapil Dev as chairman, plus Vinod Mathur, Ashok Malhotra, Dhiraj Prasanna, Daljit Singh and BCCI executive secretary Sharad Diwadkar -- visited the stadium on March 24 for about 20 minutes. The only member of the committee missing on that occasion was Kasturirangan.

In the report, faxed the same day to BCCI secretary J Y Lele, the committee indicated that the match and practise pitches are overused, the ground equipment is badly maintained, the second scoreboard is small and the umpires room is on the first floor, and not facing the ground.

Refuting the various points, Talwar asked how the match pitch could be overused if Haryana had played only the first home match on this strip? "It is not clear what parameters were used to judge the pitch," Talwar said, adding, "Further, no pitch is prepared that early, the committee members came 20 days before the game, how could they evaluate the pitch which had not even be readied at the time?"

Regarding the practise pitches, Talwar said that out of two, one hadn't been used for two seasons now, so how could it be overused?

The association secretary and ground-in-charge argued that the stadium had produced some exciting cricket, during last year's Wills and Duleep Trophy tournaments, when the venue produced high-scoring games.

"All equipment -- rollers, super soaker, cutting machines and the rest -- are in perfect working order, but the committee members did not even inspect them," Talwar alleged. "What is more, at the committee's suggestion, we installed a second scoreboard, as per specifications, at a cost of Rs 70,000. The committee did not check this either."

Talwar further said that the committee members, during the visit, had not pointed out that the umpire's room was on the first floor. "In any event, it is not a big issue," said Talwar.

Talwar, who besides his cricketing duties is also deputy commissioner of the industrial township of Faridabad, said the BCCI's action had hurt the town. "The BCCI has the right to allot games or take them away, but they should have done it with grace, why malign the stadium?" he demanded. "We had just found a sponsor to set up floodlights here, but after this, I doubt they will come forward! After all, sponsors also want publicity, value for their money, if they get the feeling the BCCI will not give us any games, then why should they come forward?"

Talwar said that Rs 7.5 million had been spent on renovating the stadium, once the fixtures were officially announced. "Now that they have taken the game from us, all activity has stopped," said Talwar.

"What is worst," said a visibly upset Talwar, "is that thus far, we have not even had the courtesy of an official letter from the BCCI, informing us of why the match has been taken from us. All we know is what we have read in the press!"

UNI