Delhi Pollution Forces BCCI To Cancel Ranji Trophy Matches

After leading to the cancellation of Day 1's play, the smog cover in New Delhi on Sunday caused cancellation of the second day's play too in two Ranji Trophy matches in the national Capital.

The two games to be affected were a Group A league encounter between Bengal and Gujarat at the Feroz Shah Kotla and a Group C match between Tripura and Hyderabad at the Karnail Singh Stadium.

The Group A match has been cancelled and will be re-scheduled by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

While poor light has been a reason for play being called off, it's a rarity that players from both teams complain of burning eyes and breathing problem even when the light had considerably improved for an hour in the afternoon.

The post-Diwali smog, leading to low visibility and poor air quality, led to multiple inspections but health of the players was paramount for the match officials.

On Day 1, at Kotla, both Manoj Tiwary and Parthiv Patel went out for toss but match referee P Ranganathan along with umpires Virender Sharma and Krishnamachari Bharathan decided against it.

At 4 pm, umpires officially called off after multiple inspections.

Bengal coach Sairaj Bahutule said: "The players were complaining that they were having burning sensation in their eyes. It's bad out there."

In fact Bengal bowling coach Ranadeb Bose was wearing a mask due to toxic air.

One of the DDCA officials told PTI: "The players also complained of breathing problems. If you stay out there for an hour, the air that you inhale will cause irreparable damage to the lungs."

The situation in Delhi is so bad that there is prediction of smog continuing and little cricket being played.

Bengal captain Manoj Tiwary said the players felt that they could not play amid such a dense smog even before the start of the game.

"This is the first time something like this happened in my career. You can't blame anyone. There is so much burning sensation in the eyes. After toss, umpires asked both me and Parthiv and we both decided that we can't play.

"During warm up we felt that it's not happening. We have to take care of our health also. This is something unheard of. But we are all responsible because when we burst crackers we really think about environmental pollution," said Tiwary.

Match Referee P Ranganathan added: "This is something no one can do anything about. We have informed BCCI  about situation. It's difficult to shift matches."

(With inputs from Rica Roy)