Battle on a different pitch8217;

When the two teams reached the ground today, everybody was surprised to find the quot;conditionquot; of the pitch. It seemed to be a freshly-laid pitch with no footmarks of the last day8217;s play, making it predominantly batsman friendly. As expected the Ludhiana team objected and the umpires, after realising the foul play, put the ball in Ludhiana8217;s favour. To play or not to play became the Ludhiana skipper Rakesh Saini8217;s predicament and he in turn chose to call up his district secretary, Vinod Chitkara on phone. Chitkara rightly asked Saini to protest against the continuation of the play and the umpires, Jasbir and Sushil Kumar quot;awarded the match to Ludhiana on defaultquot;.

Now, the million-dollar question: Who repaired the pitch? Whom should the Chandigarh players, deprived of their chance of having a go at the rival challenge, collar? Will the parent body, Punjab Cricket Association, sleep over the matter or be more specific with the whip?

Since the ground and the pitch is handed over to the umpires a day prior to the match, the umpires cannot refuse their share of the blame. However Jasbir is firm that quot;umpires cannot sleep in the ground. We have to rely on the ground staff. We found the covers quite inadequate that is another matter the sports department has to look into so we could not cover the pitch. When we came in the morning we found that somebody had sprinkled water on the spots and rolled the pitch, so we offered the game to Ludhiana.quot; He may be right on rules, but then, who takes the blame? quot;Somebody told us that Yograj Singh former Test player was rolling the wickets in the morning. Now, whether he rolled this pitch or it was somebody else, God knows,quot; Jasbir adds.

Now if God knows whether Yograj quot;repairedquot; the pitch or not, maybe he can also shed some light on why he did that! Surprisingly, he is not directly involved in the conduct of the match, though he is an quot;honourary coachquot; appointed by the UT Administration in the stadium.

The host, Chandigarh Cricket Association too has to face the tune. But, as its secretary Mohinder Singh says, quot;We have taken the stadium from the UT Administration on rent for the matches, so it is their staff who manage the ground and pitch. They should verify who repaired the pitch.quot; quot;Normally the bowler8217;s marks and the lining etc are done in the presence of the umpires. Whosoever repaired the marks on the pitch may have done it unintentionally. It8217;s wrong but why punish the players for no fault of theirs? The umpires should have at least carried on with the game even if it meant Ludhiana were playing under protest,quot; Mohinder further rues.

There will be takers for Mohinder Singh8217;s story as he is indeed on cue.The UT Administration coach Harish Kumar, too, admits ignorance. quot;I have no idea how it happened. Yograj was rolling the pitches but I am not sure whether he rolled the match pitch also.quot;

Hope the last on this episode has not been heard already.