We tried shifting this Test to other venues but everyone refused: Afghanistan cricket office-bearer

The Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) blamed, neither their own recce of the stadium, nor the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) nor the authorities at Greater Noida but only heavy rain for the abandonment of play over the first two days as they sought help from nearby venues to shift the match after the Shaheed Vijay Singh Pathik Stadium was deemed unsuitable for play for the second consecutive day due to rain again on the previous day.

“The process of recce was okay. The standard checklist was healthy, everything was perfect, everything was okay. All you have concern about why we are not playing. It is only because of the rain. It was so heavy that everyone is trying their level best to dry up the outfield and you see everybody is tirelessly working on it but it takes time,” said Akbar Paktian, the Commercial Manager of the Afghanistan Cricket Board while speaking to the media on Tuesday after play on Day 2 was called off.

Not a single ball has been bowled in this one-off Test between the Afghans and New Zealand. In fact, not even toss has been done. The ground couldn’t even bear a couple of hours of rainfall on Monday evening even though it has been approved by the International Cricket Council (ICC).

“We even called up the nearby venues. We tried working on a solution to shift the game and shift the event, and they said that because of the rain we will not be actually able to prepare the venue for you in the next 24 hours. So we thought this is like everywhere, it was not that something was wrong with our checklist. There was no error.”

The ACB International Cricket Manager, Menhajuddin Raz, said that they opted for Greater Noida due to logistical ease. The ACB wanted Lucknow or Dehradun but they couldn’t get them as there was domestic cricket going there.

The BCCI advised them Bengaluru, Kanpur, or Greater Noida. They opted for the last one.

“We always get options. Two of the three options were Kanpur and Bengaluru and this was another. It is logistically feasible, it was around two hours’ drive from Delhi airport and then around,” said Raz.

“We have been playing games here, we came here back in 2016. We have hosted Zimbabwe here, we have hosted Ireland here. We have had discussions with BCCI and we got a couple of options, so this one was the best of the options.”

Raz said that they did recce of the ground.  

Covers were brought at the end of the second day's play

We do recce of the venue and make sure everything is normal 3-4 months before the game, sometimes six months. All the issue came up due to the heavy rain that came up over the last two week or so and then last night it wasn’t good at all. Even if it would have been any other venue, they would have struggled to get it ready on time,” said Raz.  

“It is not only us who do the recce. The visiting team also do recce. We did have a three-day game with one of the local teams and it went well. We didn’t face any difficulty. But then rain started and all of this happened. It is something that is uncontrollable. The groundstaff and the local authorities, every single person have been trying their level best to get the ground ready.

“It is only a few patches that are not ready for cricket and not safe for players, that is what the umpires are thinking. The locals have been telling us that the monsoon finishes in mid-August here and then you don’t get rain.”

Afghanistan cricket, New Zealand, BCCI, Greater Noida, Test, Bengaluru, Kanpur