“Yahan to hum swimming kar sakte hain (We could easily swim here),” quipped Afghanistan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi as he walked into the Shaheed Vijay Singh Pathik Sports Complex in Greater Noida on Thursday afternoon. Overnight rain had dampened the entire field while the pitches were flooded with water. However, the ground staff, undeterred by the challenging conditions, had put a couple of table fans to work as they tried drying the strips as soon as possible.
That’s how Greater Noida welcomed the Afghanistan team as they returned to their Indian home ground after four years to play a one-off Test match against New Zealand. The skipper, who the UP Police felicitated with a bouquet, had a feeling that they might end up playing the upcoming fixture against the Kiwis without training, as the facilities did not look to be allowing them to begin their one-week preparatory camp.
“Hum logon ko aadat hai, but New Zealand waalon ko kya kahenge? (We are habitual of even poorer conditions, but what would you tell the New Zealand team management?” Shahidi turned to the ground staff while looking for a drier area on the field. Bowling coach Hamid Hasan was busy finding a dry spot to at least get started, while opener Ibrahim Zadran was highly sceptical as he pressed the wet outfield.
The Test match begins on September 9, and the ground staff, led by pitch curator Amit Sharma, has been working relentlessly to maintain the playing conditions to the required standards. However, the weather is beyond their control.
“We left the entire stadium covered last [Wednesday] evening, but the overnight storm blew away the covers. As I woke up, I rushed to the venue after the security guard sent me a video,” Sharma told News18 CricketNext.
“It would be a great game if the rain stays away. We have prepared a good black soil strip that would see an even competition between the ball and the ball. I can control everything on the field, but the weather is not in my hands. You could also check on the internet that it would rain every day till September 8,” he added.
Sharma, who was previously posted at Kanpur’s Green Park and has been at the Greater Noida facility since 2013, is pretty excited to prepare tracks for a Test match for the first time. However, he hopes the rain doesn’t wash away his hard work.
“I have prepared tracks for all white games – T20Is, ODIs – and even Ranji Trophy matches. But for the first time, I am preparing for [tracks] for Test cricket,” he added.
Sharma and his team have been using several methods to negate the impact of unpredicted North Indian weather on the playing conditions. He and his team of 8-10 men were trying to dry the pitch using big table fans while big tractor tyres were put on the covers to keep them intact in case of another storm.
“We are a team of 8-10 people who have been working here. But 10-15 men will also join us before the game begins. The hustle has just begun. We can’t calm down until the first ball of the match is bowled,” Sharma concluded.
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