KOLKATA: Bengal’s Ranji Trophy campaign suffered a serious setback when their Ranji Trophy Elite Group ‘C’ match against Bihar was called off without a ball being bowled at the Bengal Cricket Academy (BCA) in Kalyani on Monday.
Strangely no play was possible over the last four days in spite of mostly sunny days. It was mainly due to overnight or morning rains that left the outfield wet and the ground unfit for play.
Even the toss could not take place. Although Bihar will be happy with one point after suffering an innings defeat against Haryana in the last match, Bengal must be ruing the missed chance of gathering maximum points against a relatively weak opposition.
In a long tournament like the Ranji Trophy, teams always look to take the ‘home’ advantage but sadly Bengal failed miserably in that ground.
In a nice gesture, the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) officials travelled to Kalyani to felicitate Abhimanyu Easwaran for his 100th first-class match, but they could have done better to ensure that the match actually happened.
It seemed no one took good notice of the weather forecast and was thus caught completely off-guard when rain lashed the city. It now seems that Easwaran will play his 100th FC match not in Bengal colours but as a member of India 'A' side against Australia 'A' Down Under after the opener was named the vice-captain of the squad on Monday.
In a similar incident, rain on match eve saw the Bengal-Baroda Ranji Trophy match to be called off without a ball being bowled at the Eden Gardens in 2013.
However, when Sourav Ganguly became the CAB president, the ground underwent a total overhaul in 2016 with a coring process which helped change the sand-clay ratio underneath the surface.
Kalyani has a clay surface which takes time to dry. Now that CAB has decided to stage first-class matches here, perhaps it’s time to look into the surface and prevent further embarrassments.
