BCCI scraps Grounds and Pitches Committee

Stung by the fiasco at the Ferozshah Kotla, which led to the abandonment of the fifth and final India-Sri Lanka ODI, the Board of Control for Cricket in India disbanded its Grounds and Pitches Committee with immediate effect.

"The BCCI has disbanded its Grounds and Pitches Committee with immediate effect," a one-line statement issued by BCCI secretary N Srinivasan, who was present at the venue, said.

The decision to disband the five-member committee, headed by Daljit Singh, came hours after the final One-dayer was called off because of a dangerous pitch.

Apart from Daljit, other members of the panel are Dhiraj Parsana (west), PR Viswanathan (south), Rajiv Gokhale (central) and Rahul Das (east).

After India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and asked Sri Lanka to bat first, the visiting batsmen found themselves on a tricky track, where the odd ball bounced alarmingly.

Sri Lankan opener Tillakaratne Dilshan was hurt by such a delivery from Ashish Nehra, which had him in pain and receiving on-field treatment.

Veteran Sanath Jayasuriya was also at the receiving end of the poor pitch, sustaining many a blow on his upper arm and wrist.

The match was into its 24th over when Sri Lankan batsman Thilina Kandamby complained to the umpires and the match was eventually called off.

The Kotla had drawn much flak for its slow and low nature in recent times with most of the Champions League matches being low-scoring affairs and the last ODI, between India and Australia on October 31, was also a low-scoring contest.

Ironically, it was only to address this problem that the Delhi and District Cricket Associated, headed by senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley, decided to relay the pitch.

The preparation of the pitch was done by its new curator, Vijay Bahadur Mishra, who began the process on November 8, which left the organisers with nearly 50 days to ready the track for the match.