The Indian cricket board has disbanded the pitches committee for the fiasco over the substandard strip used during the fifth one-day international between India and Sri Lanka at the Ferozeshah Kotla Stadium in the capital city of New Delhi. Interestingly Daljit Singh, the head of the pitches committee, had warned during the Champions League in October that the new wickets would need one year to be seasoned. Though a one-day game was played against Australia last month, the local state team refused to play a game in the Ranji Trophy on the domestic circuit. The same Daljit Singh and his men have been sacked with immediate effect.
The state association is notorious for unprofessionalism with player selections handed out as favours to relatives and friends of the office-bearers. There were also reports of differences between the centrally-appointed pitches committee and the local groundsmen leading up to the game. As a fall-out the board has only categorically said that Delhi will not be a host 'option' for one of the two Tests against South Africa in February and March next year, thus ruling them out when they were just one of many possible venues up for choice. The question to be asked is whether that is enough even as Kotla became a reason for major embarrassment for the richest board in the world while ICC contemplates sanctions against the country. Was the pitches committee made a scapegoat? What do you think?
