Is This The New Era of Cricket?

Well yesterday's match between India and Sri Lanka, which was forced to be terminated after playing just 23.3 overs with Sri Lanka on 83/5 was the second of its kind in 2009 alone. The first one beaing the one between the West Indies and England early this year, somewhere in February 2009 at Antigua when the second test was forced to be called off after the outfield was termed a risk for bowlers. The match was called after just 10 deliveries were bowled and the England scoreboard reading 7-0 after 1.4 overs. However, this match was compensated by adding another test by making the 4 match series a 5 match series.

And the final one dayer between India and Sri Lanka has not been compensated. Is this because the result of the series was well in front of us after India won the fourth one day match at Kolkata? Whatever, it is not the question of compensation be it to the fans who had come to watch the match by going through all sorts of struggle to get tickets or the series which had to be reduced to a 4 match series that was previously a 5 match one. But, the question in front of us is what next? What if such negligence in preparing pitches continue?

This can just be called an initial start. There was hardly any such thing observed in the past be it anywhere in the world. There have been matches abandoned by rain, bad light, bad weather and at last bad crowd. But, these days bad pitches are also found playing a spoilsport. One just cannot imagine to what extent can this go upto. There was a similar hint in the fourth one day match held at the Eden Gardens-Kolkata when the lights went off with the last three balls of Sri Lankan innings still to go. Luckily, no such unexpected things took place.

Had the fourth one day match at Kolkata also been cancelled owing to bad light, it would have been wonderful. For, it could have been a 3 match series with India still winning 2-1. That can be the perfect result for a bilateral series involving three matches. It is still not known as to who is to be blamed for such a debacle of the pitch! Should the curators be indeed held responsible for this act or was it just a mistake on their part or was this unexpected by them as well is still not known. But, one thing is for sure. This is one way for the curators of the pitch to make news. Or else, who would be interested in knowing who prepared the pitch?