The Deshbandhu Park ground at Shyambazar has incurred the BCCI’s wrath for its inability to host the National Women’s U-19 T20 Trophy pre-quarter final games between Delhi-Uttar Pradesh and Andhra-Rajasthan.
With its pitch and outfield not complying with the necessary standards set by the BCCI, Deshbandhu Park, in all likelihood, will not be allotted any Board-level matches for this season at least.
The two quarter finals, which got underway on Thursday, had to be shifted to the Aditya Academy ground in Barasat after a strongly-worded email on the matter from the BCCI to the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB). In what was a bit of an embarrassment to the CAB, the state association and the Barasat venue curator Birendra Pratap Singh then had to work on a war footing to get everything ready for the two matches to get underway.
The Deshbandhu Park ground has staged BCCI competition games in the past as well. But on Wednesday, when match referees Samantho Lobatto and Krutika Naik, along with the umpires, went for an inspection of the ground, they found its pitch and outfield in extremely poor condition and duly apprised the Board of the matter.
“Due to extended monsoons, work there (at Deshbandhu Park ground) couldn’t begin at the time it ideally should have.
“The situation was seriously not easy out there, but having said so, the curator of the venue (Chiranjib Bappan Mandol) should have kept us informed of everything,” CAB secretary Bablu Kolay told The Telegraph on Thursday.
