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No miracles this time around

Stan Rayan

KOCHI: Three years ago, curator K. Parthasarathy and his team pulled off a miracle of sorts when they worked against all odds and got the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here ready for Australia's cricket one-dayer against India.

But this time, a similar act could not save the opening game of the three-match Airtel Series between the same two teams and the match was abandoned due to rain here on Sunday.

But a mess-up in the ground's top-layer, near the boundary all around, seems to have been a bigger culprit.

“I had told them (the Greater Cochin Development Authority, the stadium's guardian) to fill the boundary with river sand to a depth of at least six inches but instead, they had packed it with gravel to a depth of nearly one and half feet,” revealed Parthasarathy, the seasoned curator from Chennai, who has been supervising the ground work at the Nehru Stadium, here on Sunday afternoon.

“Unlike sand, gravel does not allow water to soak in smoothly. There were a lot of stones too…had they played, the players could have even suffered bruises.”

GCDA'S stand

Meanwhile, the GCDA Chairperson M.C. Josephine said that she will have an expert inspect the ground and also look into complaints from cricket officials that there were problems with the drainage system before taking a stand on the issue.

“We have spent nearly Rs. 28 crores to get the stadium ready for cricket. We tried our best to see that cricket fans are not denied the game for want of a stadium,” she said on Sunday evening.

“We had put the roof, prepared the ground, replaced all the chairs and also painted the stadium. And if we find that there is anything wrong with the ground or the drainage, we are willing to set it right.”

She also blamed the weather for spoiling the game.

“Everybody knows that it rains in October here. And everybody knows that the city is flooded when it rains heavily,” said Mrs Josephine.

“Only after today's experience we have come to know and understand the problem at the stadium. Anyway, we had handed the stadium to the cricket officials 15 days ago.”

The GCDA chief also said that she would rectify the problems, if any, before the start of Kerala's Ranji home games in November.

No losses for KCA

But despite the match being abandoned, the Kerala Cricket Association is not likely to suffer any losses.

The match has been insured with Oriental Insurance for Rs. 7 crores and the losses for the KCA, including the loss on account of sale of tickets (Rs 1.6 crores), is likely to be a little above Rs. 5 crores, said a member of the association's finance committee.

“We had made an air-conditioned media box and a few corporate boxes — with a total of 700 seats — which could be used for next year's IPL. These cost us a little more than Rs. 90 lakhs,” said Saji Kumar, the KCA Treasurer.

While the association began working on its insurance claim, the KCA Secretary T.C. Mathew said that in future he would ensure that Kochi does not get big matches from June to November.

The KCA also informed that people who have purchased tickets will get a full refund.

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