MATCH REPORTS
STAT SHEET
DIARY
OTHER SPORTS
SLIDE SHOW
PEOPLE
DEAR REDIFF
ARCHIVES

Rain on the pitch, storms off it!

Even as rain clouds loom over the Sinhalese Sports Club grounds, venue of Wednesday's India-Sri Lanka tie, the Indians are facing -- with calm assurance -- a storm of criticism outside the playing field.

On Tuesday, the team arrived back in Colombo from Galle, where continuous rains caused three games in the ongoing triangular series for the Singer Akai Nidahas trophy to be washed out.

And yet again, the team management expressed its dissatisfaction over the way rains have played havoc with the triangular, while reiterating that in their opinion a two-leg tournament would have been ideal.

Both skipper Mohammad Azharuddin and coach Anshuman Gaikwad however declined to comment on criticism from the Sri Lankan board, which has in the recent past come out against the Indian refusal to extend their stay in Colombo and reschedule the washed-out games.

''We don't want to comment on the criticism,'' both said, while arguing that having a two-leg tournament, instead of having each team play the others thrice, would have been better as it would have given the organisers reserve days to reschedule rain-hit games.

India also turned down the proposal of the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka (BCSSL) for converting rest days into reserve days. The players did not agree to this proposal and the tour management, comprising Azhar, his deputy Ajay Jadeja, coach Gaikwad and manager Venkat Sundaram, stood by them.

Thus far, only two completed games have been possible, with four others being washed out, three fully, one partially.

Ironically, the Lankan criticism has appeared rather ill-timed, since the rains have made the whole thing academic anyway. Even had the Indians agreed to play on the scheduled rest days, play would not have been possible as the ground at Galle was pretty much reduced to marsh.

As for the proposal of shifting back to Colombo, that too is moot -- torrential rains have been lashing the Sri Lankan capital today, with a forbidding dark cloud cover yet lurking overhead.

The organisers, however, are all sunshine smiles, and wax optimistic about play being possible tomorrow. "The drainage at the SSC is excellent," they say, "so there is no problem with holding play provided it does not rain tomorrow."

The forecast is that it will.

Both Azhar and his counterpart, Arjuna Ranatunga, expressed confidence of doing well on the morrow, assuming of course that play was possible.

As it stands, India have five points, Sri Lanka four, New Zealand three. There are two more games scheduled after tomorrow's encounter -- one between India and New Zealand, the other between Sri Lanka and the Kiwis.

India has completed only one game, against the hosts, which it won. It was coasting to victory against the Kiwis on June 23 when rain interrupted. The Kiwis, for their part, lost the only game they figured in, and their points come from abandoned games.

Both Azhar and Arjuna thus said they would like to go flat out tomorrow, since a win would ensure a berth in the final slated for July seven. The thinking is that a shock defeat, for either side, at the hands of the Kiwis could upset all calculations.

Chatting with the media, both Azhar and Gaikwad indicated they would like to field the same combination that had drubbed the world champs in the opening encounter.

The decision about the final lineup would, however, be taken only after checking the ground and weather conditions tomorrow morning. And if, as seems likely, it is only possible to play a rain-shortened game, then the team will be changed to keep that factor in the forefront.

Azhar was particularly disappointed at the weather. "We hare here to play cricket, we are bored to death sitting in the hotel watching the rain and because of all this, we are not even able to practise. And all this happens just when the team is eager to play more cricket, since it is in tremendous form and would like to continue the roll," Azhar said.

Asked why, in that case, the Indians had not agreed to the new format, the Indian skipper said that they could not agree, since that would mean sacrificing the interests of the players who had their own prior commitments.

Azhar said that besides, he was never in favour of tampering with playing rules to suit the organisers. "It creates problems for players, and the need is for uniformity in rules, not chopping and changing midway through a tournament," he argued.

"Instead of squeezing in more matches, the organisers could have shifted the scheduled game to a better ground, and had two legs instead of three," he pointed out. "I mean, if they could think of adding matches, as they did in the proposal they gave us, why couldn't they think of changing venues?"

Gaikwad, meanwhile, pointed out that even from a long range point of view, the recent washouts had harmed the team. "We wanted to try others out at Galle, certainly Rahul Sanghvi and Debashish Mohanty, when you have long league tournaments then that is the best time to experiment with your lineup," the coach said.

Both Gaikwad and Azhar said the wicket looked very good, Azhar in particular saying that if he won the toss, he would prefer to bat.

That does sound rather strange, actually, since the kind of rains that Colombo has been having will mean sub-surface moisture on the pitch for the bowlers to exploit, early on.

When this was pointed out, the Indian captain said that his analysis was purely based on the wicket, which seemed a good batting track, and that the final decision would be taken only on the morrow.

"I want the team to put up a good score and fight," Azhar said, when he was reminded that the Lankan forte is chasing. "But of course, everything depends on the situation we see tomorrow morning."

Neither side has been able to get in much practise. The Lankans made an early start, but had to cut their session short when the rains came down. The Indians meanwhile could get no practise at all this morning, and will probably have to settle for a session in the indoor stadium later today.

With inputs from UNI