Afghanistan “barely play a Test or two” a year. On top of that, there has been no play on the first four days of their one-off Test against New Zealand at the Greater Noida Sports Complex ground because of persistent rain and poor ground conditions.
Such a situation, though, would not have arisen had the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) not gone ahead in selecting Greater Noida as the venue for the one-off Test against the Black Caps, feels Afghanistan assistant coach Raees Ahmadzai.
It was also learnt that the assistant coach has sent a written communication on the matter to the Afghan Board, but has got no response yet from the latter.
“Even our head coach (Jonathan Trott) is extremely disappointed with how things have panned out. Our cricketers badly need some Test cricket experience as we play barely a Test match or two a year. This was an occasion when we had an opportunity to play a Test against a strong team and it would certainly have been an experience for our players and helped them to learn.
“We even spend a fair amount of money on our first-class cricket. Not even having a ball bowled on all four days, everything goes for a toss. The entire effort and time is wasted, which is extremely frustrating,” a disappointed Ahmadzai, currently working with Afghanistan’s white-ball specialists — getting ready for the upcoming ODI series against South Africa at Sharjah — and emerging players, told The Telegraph from Kabul on Thursday.
“We should never play at this ground again. I doubt if this is an international standard venue at all,” the assistant coach added.
Since the outfield at the Greater Noida ground isn’t sand-based, it takes longer to dry the surface when there’s so much rain. The BCCI had made some last-minute effort by arranging for Kotla curator Ankit Dutta’s travel from New Delhi to assist the Greater Noida groundsmen. An extra super sopper was also arranged, but that made no difference.
Then, showers from late at night on Wednesday made matters worse, leading to a washout on Day IV as well.
The ACB, the home team for this one-off Test, was also offered Kanpur and Bengaluru as alternative venues. However, the Afghan Board chose the Greater Noida one due to logistical reasons.
“It was a two-hour drive from the Delhi airport,” the ACB’s international cricket manager Menhajuddin Raz had said earlier in the week.
Refusing to buy into that idea, Ahmadzai termed it a “joke”.
“Just because of that (logistical reasons), you wanted to play there! Come on, is this a joke or what!” he stated.
“Bengaluru, on any day, is a better venue than this one. Our players would gain some experience from playing there irrespective of the conditions.
“Besides, it didn’t matter even if the Test match got over in three days or so. What counts is our guys’ learning experience and Test-cricket exposure playing against a strong team like New Zealand. It would have been a big boost to our cricketers if they could have stretched the Test till the fourth or fifth day.
“We don’t know when we are going to play a Test match next. And this was an opportunity we lost due to sheer wrong decision-making in terms of the venue selection. It’s extremely disappointing,” Ahmadzai rued.
According to team sources, the Afghan cricketers have shifted their focus now to the ODI series against the Proteas at Sharjah beginning on September 18. “The ones who will be joining the rest of the squad at Sharjah prefer not to dwell any longer on this Test as the final day too may not witness any action,” an Afghanistan team source said.
The source added that Afghanistan may select Lucknow as the venue for their home Tests going forward.