Ranji Trophy: Wet weather plays spoilsport in Hyderabad

As has been the pattern in the last few days, there was bright sunshine for most of the day and no rain. But, last evening rain was so heavy that the ground was rendered unfit for any action today.

For Hyderabad and Uttar Pradesh, it was another blank visit to the venue as the umpires after two inspections before the lunch break decided to call of play.

Wet ground conditions forced abandonment of play for the second consecutive day of the Hyderabad-Uttar Pradesh Group A match at Gymkhana Ground here on Sunday.

As has been the pattern in the last few days, there was bright sunshine for most of the day and no rain. But, last evening rain was so heavy that the ground was rendered unfit for any action today.

For the two teams, it was another blank visit to the venue as the umpires after two inspections before the lunch break decided to call off play.

And, rains again late in the afternoon today have diminished any hopes of action on the third day too.

Clearly, HCA is under fire for the way it was handling the conduct of the cricket matches especially after the T-20 international between India and Australia was abandoned on October 13 without a ball being bowled when there was no rain on the match day (due to wet ground conditions).

Former HCA Secretary K. John Manoj says that the BCCI rule clearly states that any State Association can give two alternative venues for Ranji Trophy at the start of the season.

"Since Gymkhana and Rajiv Gandhi Stadium in Uppal were the automatic choices intimated to the Board, the officials should have straight away shifted the UP-Hyderabad Ranji game to Uppal as it was scheduled to start a day after the T-20 international," he stated.

“It is unfortunate that the officials have not shown the cricketing wisdom to ensure that the matches were on. Ironically, many of the office-bearers were witness to the way the previous ruling groups have seen to that the matches were on despite heavy rains even on match days also,” the former HCA Secretary reminded.

For his part, HCA Secretary T. Seshnarayan reminded that the conditions were worse than those referred to in the past. “Hyderabad has never witnessed these kind of continuous rains in the month of October. We tried our best for the T-20 international and are trying our best to see there is play in Ranji Trophy game but rains every day have dampened our efforts,” he said.