Guwahati T20I flop show: Assam Cricket Association clarifies: LIVE

IPL will definitely happen and rain cannot be a factor to not host IPL. No risk, no gain, said the ACA secretary. “We have full faith on Ashish Bhowmick,” he added.

We were following the weather forecast and rain was not a question anywhere, the rain was a surprise for us, we were actually worried about issues related to fog, said ACA secretary Devajit Saikia.

“Because we have such a great drainage facility we had that ray of hope that the match might happen but had such a weather situation happened in Eden Gardens, the match would have got called off in the starting stage itself,” he said.

“When people from Star Sports or anywhere else are questioning whether it was a human error during the match who is the human is an important question, ACA groundsmen or the two umpires appointed by BCCI,” Saikia added.

ACA won’t incur any financial loss due to the cancellation of the match but we are just sad for the crowd and the fans who were such a sport: ACA secretary

Had we been given one and a half hours, we would have prepared the pitch but 40 min was not sufficient that evening: ACA secretary.

Super soppers were operated over the covers near the pitch as instructed by the umpires and that might be one of the reason for water getting on to the pitch: ACA secretary.

Akash Chopra and VVS Laxman said that there were holes in the cover but we are still unable to find the hole: ACA secretary

BCCI chief curator Ashish Bowmick said that the pitch dampened due to sweating and usage of blankets could have avoided this: ACA secretary.

The match was abandoned at 8:30 pm itself and we had just 40 mins in our hand: ACA secretary.

We cannot question the umpires because they were appointed by BCCI and not by ACA: ACA secretary.

We had 106 blankets but umpires didn’t instruct us to bring on the blankets: ACA secretary.

The blankets under the covers help to contain the moisture from the field: ACA secretary.

We were successful enough to dry up the field and pitch during the day: ACA secretary.

But we dismiss all kinds of claims and allegations that the pitch cover had holes: ACA secretary.

We won’t comment much about how the water got into the field but there was no negligenge on ACA’s behalf, said the ACA secretary.

Search a bit more on Internet and you will also find pics of coal iron on the pitch, said the ACA secretary.

ACA secretary talked about the Ashes Test with photographs where the Aussie players had used a hair dryer (hot air blower) to dry the pitch.

On December 13, 2016, during India vs England match, curators used barbeque to dry the pitch, said ACA secretary.

ACA secretary Devajit Saikia shows some photographs from a Test match in Chennai 2 years ago

Any kind of scientific research will lead to the same result as I spoke: ACA secretary.

Umpire instructed to run super soppers up till near the pitch and due to that the water might have splashed under the pitch covers: ACA secretary.

The pitch got soft due to the dew setting in and then rain for 1 hour, 3 mins made situations even worse: ACA secretary.

Hair dyer is a wrong word, it was a hot air blower; use is the same, though: ACA secretary Devajit Saikia

We will use the same pitch cover for the Assam vs Chhattisgarh Ranji match; we are not changing the covers: ACA secretary Devajit Saikia.

After the toss, we had to follow the complete instructions of the umpire till the match ends: ACA secretary.

Quoting from the ICC guidelines, the ACA secretary mentioned that they had authority to dry the affected areas only till the time prior to the toss.

We had rain from 8 am to 12:30 pm during the day of the match: ACA.

Generally, we have 18 persons but for this match we had six additional persons making it a total of 24 for this match specially: ACA secretary.

There were no holes in the covers, said ACA secretary Devajit Saikia. “We had sufficient manpower,” he added.

We had 18 covers for the pitch whereas according to the guidelines by BCCI, only two sets are needed to be kept ready by the host association, said the ACA secretary.

This guidelines will be carried out throughout the year for all the T20 matches across India, said the ACA secretary.

ACA secretary Devajit Saikia distributes the guidelines of the staging association by BCCI among the media persons.

A big thank you to Assam Police, PWD and various organisations for their support, said ACA secretary Devajit Saikia.

We were given option to cancel the match and host a match in March against South Africa, we got the allotment letter on December 31, said the ACA secretary.

Just a month ago, we almost lost all hopes of hosting the T20I match between India and Sri Lanka because of all the CAA protests in the state, said Saikia.

Actually India vs Zimbabwe match was planned to be organised in Guwahati, said ACA secretary Devajit Saikia.

Even the semi-final of ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 between India and New Zealand got called off due to rain: ACA president Ramen Dutta.

Since the emergence of cricket, a total of 106 matches have been called off due to rain an this was not the first instance, said ACA president Ramen Dutta.

We take every kind of criticism from our fans as blessings, said the ACA president.

This was the first men’s international since our term as the members of ACA and are really sad with whatever happened, said the ACA president.

The covers had no discrepancy or holes in them as the same cover was used during the rains on the same day earlier and then the pitch had no water in it, said Dutta.

ACA had no authority over the outfield as well as the pitch since five days before the match. It was completely under BCCI’s supervision, said the ACA president.

Spectators even informed us that the rain was so big that they even saw hailstones falling: ACA president.

The pitch and outfield were in the best of conditions when the field was handed over to the match referee at 6.30 pm ahead of the toss on Sunday evening, Dutta said.

The pitch was handed over to the chief pitch curator of BCCI Ashish Bhowmick on December 31, 2019 — five days ahead of the T20I match between India and Sri Lanka on Sunday, said ACA president Ramen Dutta.

ACA president Dutta assures everyone that they would refund all the ticket fares to the spectators on January 10 and 11, 2020.

Assam Cricket Association starts press conference over Sunday’s abandoned T20I match

ACA president Ramen Dutta thanks all the spectators and fans for being such a wonderful crowd in the stadium on Sunday and lending support to the cricket body.