Railways home ground banned

Eighteen wickets fell on the first two days in the Railways-Saurashtra game.

Railways ploy of playing on an under-prepared wicket in their last league game against Saurashtra in December had back-fired when Saurashtra recorded a 97-run win. On Friday,the Karnail Singh Stadium,Railways home ground,was banned as a venue for the next season after that particular wicket came under scrutiny at the Indian cricket boards technical committee meeting.

Eighteen wickets fell on the first two days in the Railways-Saurashtra game. Match referee Prannoy Roy had criticised the pitch in his report saying that the grass had been completely removed. The Railways Sports Promotion Board (RSPB) secretary Jhanja Tripathi told The Indian Express that the Sourav Ganguly-headed technical committees decision was a setback.

This is a big blow for us. We will appeal this decision of the technical committee. But we havent been officially informed about the technical committees decision to bar us from hosting matches at the Karnail Singh Stadium next season, Tripathi said.

Internal inquiry

However,Tripathi was quick to add that an internal inquiry would be held into what led to the wicket being under-prepared. There will be an inquiry. The RSPBs credibility is at stake, Tripathi said.

Railways opened the bowling with off-spinner Arlen Konwar in the first innings and with left-arm orthodox Ashish Yadav in the second.

Saurashtra also quickly brought spin into play with left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja,who took 6/23 in Railways first innings,replacing medium-pacer Sandip Maniar after his first over. The RSPB had sent a three-member group led by its senior sports officer Diana Edulji to put forward its views at the technical committee meeting.

We were not told of this decision. All we were told to look at alternate venues. This is very surprising, Edulji said. Curator Rakesh Mehrotra tried to lay the blame on the schedule. They wanted to know what went wrong in the Saurashtra game. I told them that the three-day break between matches isnt enough time to prepare a sporting wicket, Mehrotra said.