Indian National Cricket Team batting legend Sunil Gavaskar was furious after the first T20I of the three-match series between India and South Africa was washed out due to persistent rain.
The first T20I between Suryakumar Yadav led Indian National Cricket Team and the South African National Cricket Team led by Aiden Markram played at Kingsmead in Durban on Sunday 10 December. There was a delay in the draw due to rain in the city and the referees waited about two hours before canceling the draw. match.
The abandonment of the match was a big blow to both India and South Africa as they only have a handful of T20I matches left to play before announcing their squads for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024.
When the match was called off, India great Sunil Gavaskar was furious at Cricket South Africa (CSA) for not covering all the ground. In an interaction on Star Sports, Gavaskar said that each and every cricket board has enough money to buy covers to properly cover the entire ground at the time of rain, but many cricket boards do not follow this practice, which generates additional delays. In the game.
“If the ground remains bare and the rain stops, you know it won’t start for another hour. Suddenly it rains again. So there is no game at all. Everybody (cricket boards) is getting a lot of money. Let’s not make a mistake. All cricket boards have a lot of money. If they say no, they are lying. They may not have as much money as the BCCI. That seems fine to me. But each board has money to buy these covers that will cover the entire ground,” Sunil Gavaskar was quoted as saying by India Today.
Many World Cup matches in England could not be played because the ground was not covered – Sunil Gavaskar
Sunil Gavaskar spoke about the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019, which was held in England, and said that several matches could not be held due to the ground not being completely covered at the time of rain.
“Many matches at the World Cup in England (2019) could not be played because the ground was not covered. The rain had stopped, but the rest of the ground was, you know, wet. So many teams lost points. South Africa. I remember they wanted to play some team and the match didn’t take place or something happened, mainly because the field was wet,” Gavaskar said.
The great batsman further said that every cricket board should cover the entire ground to avoid unnecessary delay and gave the example of Eden Gardens, Kolkata.
“What boards need to do now is cover all the ground. We have no excuse. I remember I think there was a test match at Eden Gardens where there was some problem and the game didn’t start. In the next match, Eden Gardens had all the ground covered. That’s the kind of initiative you want to have. Sourav Ganguly was the man in charge and he made sure that no one could point fingers at Eden Gardens,” Sunil Gavaskar added.
The Men in Blue and the Proteas will meet on December 12 and 14 in Gqeberha and Johannesburg.
