The Shaheed Vijay Singh Pathik Stadium in Noida has come under a lot of criticism as not a single ball was bowled in four days of the one-off Test match between Afghanistan and New Zealand. While there was some rain, the ground condition was extremely disappointing with wet patches in different areas and the groundstaff struggling to get the surface ready in time. According to media reports, the covers were insufficient to protect the entire ground and even the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) has been fuming over the infrastructure. However, while speaking to radio channel, 93.5 Red FM, an alleged stadium manager (name wasn’t revealed during the conversation) denied any mismanagement.

According to a report by News18, the stadium manager said that people are criticising the facility without understanding the situation and even said that “people want content”.

“The Afghanistan team had arrived on 30 August and they played a 3-day (intra-squad) match from 1-2 September where they scored more than 300 runs. We delivered the pitch as per coach Jonathan Trott‘s demand,” the concerned person told the radio channel. “The rain is causing the major trouble which isn’t in our hands. The closest stadium to this one is Delhi (Arun Jaitley Stadium) where the downpour has resulted in the cancellation of (DPL 2024) matches. The showers are so heavy that the water penetrates the covers despite enveloping the entire ground.

“And it’s not that Afghanistan are not aware of this ground. It has been their home venue for three years and they surely have trained in rainy conditions. Had their board been unaware, they wouldn’t have approved this venue to host the game,” head.

After this answer, the RJ (Radio Jockey) commented – “Jitna to humari team nahi kheli, itna to inhone khela hai (the Indian cricket team has never played but the Afghans did).”

The venue manager replied – “Kuch logon ko content chahiye hotein hain, unko reality nahi jaan na (People need content and don’t want to know the reality).”