I’d love to give advice on a few things if Afghanistan Cricket Board wants to listen: Jonathan Trott

The one-off Test between Afghanistan and New Zealand will go down in history as one of only eight Tests, and the first this century to have been abandoned without a ball bowled.

The condition of the ground at Shaheed Vijay Singh Pathik Stadium in Greater Noida at the start of the fifth day had gotten worse due to continuous rain, and puddles of water could be seen clearly on the ground.

“Personally, I was disappointed. We were very excited to play against New Zealand and put ourselves up against that challenge. The players have worked really hard. Playing at this time of the year is always tricky,” said Afghanistan coach Jonathan Trott, a former England batsman.

The failure of the match to happen has put the spotlight on the choice of venue by Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB), who are hosting this Test.

Asked if he’d like to advise the ACB on aspects outside of the team like venue selection to ensure that abandonment of a Test like this doesn’t happen in future, Trott said, “I’d love to give advice on a few things. It is whether the ACB or the top management want to listen. That is the only problem. For me, it is a case of making sure the players are looked after.”

The two sides discussed some options but none could materialise because of the poor condition of the ground. The only piece of action that took place at the ground was the open net session the Kiwis had on Day 2. Further rain ensured that the practice was also stopped.

“There were a few things discussed, but we looked at the ground today, and it was never really going to be attainable, unfortunately. There's obviously a huge desire to play cricket but the safety of the players, because New Zealand have got a huge tour coming up, unfortunately, you've got to take that into account,” he added.

“The facilities obviously disappointed that we haven't been able to play and the amount of water that's come down is unprecedented for this time of year or the last three days.”

Stead too was disappointed. His team, besides doing open net session on Day 2, practiced playing spin in the lobby of the hotel. "We played a lot of hallway cricket, playing spin."  

“It's frustrating for us. It was our first Test match against Afghanistan and we were really excited about that. They've been great competitors of ours over the last few World Cups. We've had some great games of cricket. We have the World Test Championship series just around the corner in Sri Lanka. So, the preparation towards that would have been really useful for us as well.”

“So that's the most disappointing part for us is that we've lost that opportunity to be match-hardened and match-ready when we go into our Test match next week. But the guys are really disappointed.”

Explaining what went behind the scenes and why the decision to not continue playing the Test, Stead said, “I mean it's worth noting I think [that] it's been 1200 millimetres of rain in the last week and even though it was fine for those two days, there were thunderstorms the nights before and the ground was just too soft and the umpires deemed that unfit to play on. So that's sort of out of the players' hands in a way as well.”

Here is the list of the seven Tests prior to this that were abandoned:

• England vs Australia at Old Trafford, Manchester, 1890
• England vs Australia at Old Trafford, Manchester, 1938
• Australia vs England at Melbourne, 1970
• New Zealand vs Pakistan at Dunedin, 1989
• West Indies vs England at Guyana, 1990
• Pakistan vs Zimbabwe at Faisalabad, 1998
• New Zealand vs India at Dunedin, 1998

Afghanistan cricket board, New Zealand cricket, Jonathan Trott, Gary Stead, Greater Noida, ICC, Test