The Feroz Shah Kotla has been banned from hosting any international games for a period of 12 months. However, this does mean that the ground will be able to host its share of four games during the ICC Cricket World Cup in 2011, where it is scheduled to host four games.
The issue had arisen when the fifth and the final game of the ODI series between India and Sri Lanka, that was played at the Kotla had to be abandoned after the pitch had begun to misbehave. Some of the deliveries kept low, but there were some that bounced so awkwardly that the batsmen had struggled to get a move on. In the end, after getting hit a numerous times, the Lankans had protested to the umpires, who in turn had decided to take the matter into the hands of the match referee Alan Hurst.
Hurst had abandoned the game after looking at various options.
In his report, Hurst had then gone on to classify the pitch as dangerous to bat on and unfit to play cricket on.
According to the ICC, “Following the conclusion of a full investigation into the circumstances that led to the abandonment of a one-day international match between India and Sri Lanka on 27 December 2009, the ICC confirms that no international cricket will be played at the New Delhi ground until the end of December 2010.”
The general manager of the ICC, Dave Richardson said that after viewing the footage of the match, he along with the chief referee Ranjan Madagulle had decided that the referee was indeed right in his assessment. He said that the pair had looked at the frequency of misbehaviour and the variation amount before arriving at this conclusion.
However, Richardson also said that despite this, the Kotla pitch had hosted many games before this and had done so without any trouble. Taking this into consideration the ban was for 12 months only.
This ban does not include the IPL where Kotla will host seven games, as it is a domestic tournament. DDCA vice president Chetan Chauhan said, “We will still host all our IPL matches in March and April.” He also added that there was no plans of any games to be hosted by Kotla as it is in the next 12 games.
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