The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Rain hampers stadium work

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Tuesday, Sep 25, 2007
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Sport - Cricket

Rain hampers stadium work

Principal Correspondent

KOCHI: Heavy rain over the last few days has hampered the preparation for the forthcoming One-Day International between India and Australia here. There is now even a danger of the Jawaharlal Nehru International Stadium not being ready for the October 2 game.

“A lot of work has to be done,” said Taposh Chatterjee, a member of the BCCI Grounds and Pitches Committee, after inspecting the Nehru Stadium here on Monday afternoon.

“The wicket is okay, not a matter of concern… it’s a one-day game. But the outfield is bad,” said the Jaipur-based former Ranji player.

Rush time

“Now you have to rush…use all your resources, bring in more manpower and bring the ground to condition within the next three to four days. Cut the grass, roll the outfield, take out water and spray powder to get it ready.”

The match is just a week away but even today women were sponging out water from the ground. Minutes later, it was raining heavily again.

“Normally, by this time the ground should be ready, you’ll just have to sort of polish the diamond, make some last-minute touches here and there. But I know the weather here has been a problem, the officials could not take up the work as it should have been,” said Taposh who prepared a beauty of a wicket for the Champions Trophy semifinal in Jaipur’s Sawai Man Singh Stadium late last year and received accolades from West Indian great Brian Lara for his effort.

Emergency measures

The Kerala Cricket Association is now working on some emergency measures to bring the slushy outfield back to shape. “We’ll be bringing huge tarpaulin covers from Chennai to cover parts of the outfield and have also asked for the services of K. Parthasarathy (Tamil Nadu curator),” said the KCA secretary T.C. Mathew.

And the Kochi ground curator P.V. Ramachandran, who has been desperately hoping for three to four dry days, plans to increase his army of workers. “I’ve got 14 people now, I’ll be bringing in eight more labourers from tomorrow (Tuesday),” he said.

Taposh will be making another visit, after three or four days, to see the progress.

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