The Shaheed Vijay Singh Pathik Stadium faced criticism after poor ground conditions halted the Afghanistan-New Zealand Test, but the venue manager blamed the delays on heavy rain, dismissing claims of mismanagement.
New Delhi: The Shaheed Vijay Singh Pathik Stadium in Noida has faced significant criticism after no play occurred over four days during the one-off Test match between Afghanistan and New Zealand. The ground conditions were poor, with wet patches and inadequate covers failing to protect the pitch, leading to frustration from the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB). Despite media reports highlighting the issues, an unnamed alleged stadium manager speaking to 93.5 Red FM denied any mismanagement.
According to a report by News18, the stadium manager defended the facility, claiming that critics were not fully understanding the situation and remarked that “people want content.”
“The Afghanistan team had arrived on 30 August and they played a 3-day (intra-squad) match from 1-2 September where they scored more than 300 runs. We delivered the pitch as per coach Jonathan Trott’s demand,” the concerned person told the radio channel. “The rain is causing the major trouble which isn’t in our hands. The closest stadium to this one is Delhi (Arun Jaitley Stadium) where the downpour has resulted in the cancellation of (DPL 2024) matches. The showers are so heavy that the water penetrates the covers despite enveloping the entire ground.
“And it’s not that Afghanistan are not aware of this ground. It has been their home venue for three years and they surely have trained in rainy conditions. Had their board been unaware, they wouldn’t have approved this venue to host the game,” head.
After this answer, the RJ (Radio Jockey) commented – “Jitna to humari team nahi kheli, itna to inhone khela hai (the Indian cricket team has never played but the Afghans did).”
The venue manager replied – “Kuch logon ko content chahiye hotein hain, unko reality nahi jaan na (People need content and don’t want to know the reality).”
