Tag Indian cricket

Actually it didn't rain that day (April 9, 2006) in Guwahati, but the umpires (AV Jayaprakash & Rudy Koertzen) were not convinced of ground conditions were fit to play. Overnight rain had spoiled the India vs England ODI, and also the day of Guwahati fans who waited patiently to watch a game in their city after good 5 years gap. Inspection after inspection - match was called off without a ball being bowled.

Result of 'no result'- crowd started burning the stands & local police rushed in to counter/control the situation.

Reason I bring this up after good 15 months, is because 1st India vs Pakistan one day cricket match is scheduled to be played at the same Nehru stadium on 5th November 2005. There will be talk of something being wrong with Guwahati (in Assam state of India) crowd & the risk both the teams might be taking in visiting the city.

Fact is, as I said, Guwahati had not got a single game in many years, and then when one match came in - umpires frustrated them for long hours & then abandoned the match. The ground officials said outfield was good enough for a short cricket match, but we didn't used to play twenty20 matches in those days. Anger among the crowd was obvious & everything happened after both the teams had left the ground.

I've included one picture of that Guwahati cricket match incidence, and you can find more pictures here.

Note that : Indian team will reach Guwahati on 4th November at around the mid afternoon whereas Pakistan team will reach only in the late afternoon. This leave very little or no time for either of the team to do any practice before the series starting match.

I hope weather report for Guwahati remains fine this Nomember 5 & Guwahati gets great game of cricket between the arch-rivals.