Lost ground: Keenan won’t host India-South Africa match

Jamshedpur, Jan. 4: The city has once again been deprived of the opportunity to host a one-day international (ODI) cricket match.

Though no specific reason has been cited this time, no India-South Africa ODI tie will be held in the city in February. Non-availability of Keenan Stadium was said to have emerged as the biggest hurdle.

The match had come Jharkhand State Cricket Association’s (JSCA) way based on the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) venue rotation policy. Jamshedpur was also eligible to host a match of the just-concluded India-Sri Lanka ODI series.

The Proteas will be touring the country to play two Tests and three ODIs.

According to sources, the BCCI had enquired about the feasibility of organising the match in Jamshedpur and had subsequently asked JSCA about availability of the ground.

However, JSCA’s request to Tata Steel, which owns Keenan Stadium, to make the venue available for the match once again fell on deaf ears. With the cricket body not able to make any commitment for the tie, the tour, programme and fixtures panel of the BCCI named Jaipur, Kanpur and Ahmedabad as venues for the ODIs at a meeting in Mumbai yesterday.

“We could not have done anything in this matter since we don’t have our own ground. Tata Steel did not make the ground available to us,” said Rajesh Verma, secretary of JSCA. Tata Steel, on the other hand, had very little to say on the matter. “We have nothing to comment. The matter is dead,” a company spokesperson stated.

The state cricket body had in October also approached the steel major for making the Keenan available for organising the India-Sri Lanka one-dayer. But then too, the company did not reply to the letter written by JSCA, added Verma.

The situation is apparently a repeat of what unfolded in the run-up to the November 2008 India-England ODI. The JSCA was then forced to surrender the November 23 India-England match after Tata Steel declined to allot Keenan Stadium citing security reasons.

The cricket association had that time written umpteen letters to the company to make Keenan available for the match. But the steel major refused to allot the venue, citing safety of spectators as the reason. The steel major had then came out with a statement that the galleries were in bad shape and it cannot compromise on the safety of the spectators.

Nothing much has changed in the condition of Keenan Stadium, which presently stands dilapidated at the heart of the city.