Long wait begins for Delhi

ICCs chief match referee Ranjan Mudugalle and general manager Dave Richardson are then expected to analyse the match-referees report,the Indian boards defence and other available evidence before deciding on sanctions. ICC CEO Haroon Lograt said in Delhi that the procedure could take up to a month.

Dhoni factor

The Indian board,after consultations with the DDCA,is likely to base its defence around the fact that Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni did not mind continuing the match. DDCA vice-president Chetan Chauhan said that while Hurst hadnt said as much in his release,he had told him that only one team wasnt willing to carry on. During my conversations with the match-referee,he told me that one side did not want to carry on and that he could not force them to. It could not have been India,as MS Dhoni did not mind continuing. Questions raised on Sunday,however,had more to do with why the pitch was poor and not whether it was unfit or not. The DDCA has also told the BCCI that some of the blame for the pitch should lie with them as it was the BCCI-appointed curator,Daljit Singh,who was in charge of operations.

The BCCI is likely to contest that the Kotla pitch was poor,rather than unfit,as 23.3 overs were bowled here,unlike the Antigua Test match or the one-dayer in Indore,which had to be called off almost immediately.

The Indian board is also expected to offer to drop this particular pitch number 4 from the three proposed pitches that had initially been inspected by ICC officials. Pitch numbers 4,5,and 6 were being prepared keeping in mind the 2011 World Cup. Sources in the DDCA indicated that they were hoping the sanctions were restricted to an year-long ban and a fine. Delhi,already out of the running to host an India-South Africa Test match in February,is not slated to host any other international fixture in the next 12 months as of now.

Earlier,Lorgat had said,If you read the guidelines,if a pitch is deemed unfit,its a minimum 12 and 24 months. If a pitch is deemed poor,then there is a lesser sanction. So before we go to sanctions we have to understand whether the pitch will be regarded as poor or unfit. At the end of the day its a subjective assessment between the match-referee,the chief match-referee and Richardson,and they will have to determine what it is and it would be wrong for me to pre-empt anything.

We have already toughened up the sanctions following the Antigua incident. If yesterdays incident warrants any sanctions,we will abide by that, Lorgat said at a press conference. He reiterated that it was too early to speculate on Delhis chances of hosting World Cup 2011 matches.

IPL platform

Meanwhile,the DDCA is hoping to use the Indian Premier League as a platform to ensure that they can get the job done the right way,after a series of poor pitches. The Delhi Daredevils will host seven home matches during the third season of IPL in February-March and Daredevils Chief Operating Officer Amrit Mathur has already backed the DDCA to put up an improved show. We have full faith in the DDCA and I am sure that the pitch will play well during the IPL games, Mathur told The Indian Express.

IPL games are,technically,domestic matches,but the presence of international players is expected to be a good testing ground for the Kotla pitch,which surely will be under the spotlight even then.