NEW DELHI: Even as Delhi is copping serious flak for its pollution woes, BCCI’s intention to pitch for ensuring that their home season has two windows reserved – October-November and February-March – in the future tours programme the ICC is drawing up, could well resolve a number of scheduling headaches.
The Indian cricket board has reportedly conveyed to the ICC that any new international calendar would need to have two reserved windows for India’s home season – October-November and February-March.
The decision comes after the ICC gave the green light to the Test championship and one-day international league earlier this year. While details still need to be worked out, the Test championship is expected to commence after the 50-over World Cup in 2019 and culminate with a final in mid-2021.
If BCCI’s wishes come true (as they often do when it comes to ICC related matters), a viable solution could well be to ensure that no international teams play in the pollution trouble spots of North India (Delhi, Kanpur, Chandigarh) during October-November.
BCCI acting secretary Amitabh Chaudhary, during a media conference on Monday, admitted that scheduling Test matches in New Delhi during this time of the year will come up for discussion.
However, another BCCI official observed that the board will not have to confront the issue in the near future as Kotla has had its share of matches for the time being.
“Now what will be the environmental condition in 2020 can’t be predicted in 2017. So if Kotla doesn’t get a match, it will be purely because of rotation,” the official told PTI.
On Tuesday, the Sri Lankan players wore N95 masks, required to protect the lungs from the poor air quality that has plagued the national capital for years now.
Pacer Suranga Lakmal had a rough time on the field after bowling three overs. Fielding at third man, he started throwing up on the ground and was taken off. In fact, groundsmen had to come out and put sand and sawdust on that particular area.
