India’s cricket board (BCCI) is the world’s richest, and Delhi is India’s ‘showpiece’ capital, which aspires to world city status. But on Sunday, Delhi was left hanging its head in shame as the fifth One-dayer between India and Sri Lanka at Ferozeshah Kotla was called off after 23.3 overs due to dangerously poor pitch conditions. The BCCI, which always shows alacrity when it comes to making money from cricket, took absolutly no action for several months even as the Kotla pitch came under heavy criticism. It finally suspended its Grounds and Pitches Committee, headed by Daljit Singh, after Sunday’s fiasco.

The cancellation came at 11.20am, with Sri Lanka having scored 83/5. Both captains – MS Dhoni and Kumar Sangakkara – the match referee, and officials from the two cricket boards came to the conclusion that conditions were too dangerous for batsmen to allow the match to continue. By then, the Lankan batsmen had already taken numerous blows. This was a farce waiting to happen as the BCCI failed to heed continuous uproar over poor pitch conditions at the venue ever since the T20 Champions League and the India-Australia ODI here on Oct 31. DDCA has for long been a hotbed of mismanagement and the BCCI’s track record isn’t too good either, with the lights going off at Eden Gardens in just the previous game. Incidentally, on December 25, 1997 the same two teams were involved in an identical situation at the Nehru Stadium in Indore, leading to a subsequent ICC ban on the venue.

The BCCI immediately suspended its pitches and grounds committee, meaning chief Daljit Singh, who was involved role in the preparation of this Kotla surface, has been sacked. The DDCA’s own local curator Vijay Bahadur Mishra, its ground and pitches committee chairman, Chetan Chauhan and committee’s convener Sunil Dev too have quit.