India vs West Indies 2016: WICB under fire for poor ground conditions

Poor ground conditions at the Queens Park Oval

With hardly any play possible due to wet conditions and a wet outfield in the first 4 days of the last Test match against the West Indies, all fingers now point at the West Indian administrators for the incapability to drain out the water logged inside the field. The home side won the toss on the opening day, and could bat for only 22 overs before rain played spoilsport. Having lost 2 wickets, the West Indies had put up 66 runs till then.

Play was called off for the third consecutive day after umpires Nigel Long and Rod Tucker’s inspection inferred it was unfit for playing cricket. It was also revealed that even if there was continuous sunshine for the past couple of days, it was not possible to play cricket owing to the poor drainage conditions at the Queens Park Oval during the Test match between India and West Indies.

Though the match officials and the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) are yet to give any official statement about the turn of events, the WICB’s regional curator Kent Crafton feels that if proper measures were taken after Thursday’s downpour, a normal day's play could have been restored. According to the reports of news18.com, he said, "We have been having rain constantly for the past few weeks so any additional rain would not have helped the situation

"With the downpour on Thursday the rain would have come off the covers and concentrated in certain areas around the square which have become over-saturated”, he added while speaking to a local daily on Saturday and expressed his confidence of a day’s play. As a matter of fact, there was no rain overnight and was complemented by bright sunshine on the fourth day, but still, the ground conditions were not suitable for playing. 

This is not the first time the Caribbean islands are under the scanner for poor ground conditions, back in 1998 the first Test of the England tour which was played at the Sabina Park in Jamaica was called off within an hour’s play when the umpires discovered that the pitch was dangerous for batting conditions against fast bowlers.

There was a time when the Queens Park Oval in Trinidad and Tobago was not eager to host Test matches after the month of May due to the persistent rain which started from the month of June. But with the introduction of the Indian Premier League in April and May, the West Indies board are often forced to host matches in the monsoon.

It is also to be noted that prior to this, no senior International matches has been staged by Trinidad and Tobago in the month of July and August ever.