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Follow UsThe one-off Test between Afghanistan and New Zealand in Greater Noida got into the history books but for the wrong reasons. Incessant rain and insufficient outfield didn’t allow any play across the five days. Not a single ball was bowled and even the toss couldn’t take place.
It is now the eighth abandoned Test match without a ball being bowled and the first in the 21st century.
Jonathan Trott and Gary Stead, the head coaches of Afghanistan and New Zealand, respectively, expressed their disappointment at the sorry affair in Greater Noida, which was supposed to be the first Test at this venue.
“We were very excited to put ourselves against the challenge of playing New Zealand,” Trott said.
“We had been here and had warm-up games and got ourselves accustomed to the conditions and the weather. But to try and play a Test match at this time of the year is always tricky,” he added.
Stead was in agreement with Trott, saying, “It’s frustrating for us. It was our first Test match against Afghanistan, and we were really excited about that as well. They’ve been great competitors of ours over the last few World Cups, and we’ve had some great games of cricket.”
New Zealand will now fly to Sri Lanka for two Tests in Galle and then return to India for a three-match Test series against India in Bengaluru, Pune, and Mumbai. Stead reckoned this abandoned Test match had been a missed opportunity to test themselves before facing bigger teams on this Asian expedition.
“The most disappointing part for us is that we’ve lost that ability to be match-hardened and match-ready when we go into our Test match next week. So, the guys are really disappointed,” Stead answered.
There was no rain during the day on the first two days of the Test. However, the outfield was too soft to absorb the water from the overnight rain despite sunshine and diligent efforts from the ground staff. Both sides took to practising on the square. New Zealand practised on both days, while the Afghanistan side didn’t arrive on the field on Day 2. Afghanistan also played a three-day game with a local team here in the first week of the month, which gave them a good assessment of the conditions.
“We got to train on the square the days before, so we got to see the pitch. So the appetite for the game was growing even more among the group,” Trott said while adding that this instance should add to the learnings for the future.
“I hope it's a good learning case that things can crop up. Everything has got to be checked out and made sure that it's ready for Test match cricket. And I think sometimes we take it for granted when we go and play all these things that have already been done in the past for other nations or other venues - with regards to drainage or ground staff, all those sorts of things.
"I think the ground staff have worked, obviously, very hard here. It just unfortunately hasn't materialised, and we've had a freakish amount of rain for this time of year because that's what I'm being told by the locals,” the Afghanistan coach said.
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Trott also agreed with Hashmatullah Shahidi’s assessment prior to the game about having a fixed ‘home venue’ away from home for Afghanistan, which will help both the team and the ground facilities be more consistent. “If you have one fixed venue, then you can iron out the issues that arise. But I think this maybe a result of not having played a lot of Test cricket in the past and still trying to find a venue that we can use consistently, so it would be nice to have one venue,” the former England cricketer explained.
The last time a Test match was called off without a single ball bowled was in 1998, also involving New Zealand, against India in Dunedin. The two teams then played an unofficial ODI to compensate for the lost time. Was there something similar on the cards here if the ground was ready for the final day’s play?
“There were a few things discussed. But we looked at the ground today, and it was never going to be attainable, unfortunately,” Trott spoke about the discussions between the two sides.
What did the players do to get through these five days without any play?
Trott mentioned that the Afghan players had a few gym sessions to keep themselves active. Kiwi cricketers, as Stead said, were involved in a lot of hallway cricket which will eventually help them to hone their skills against spin.
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