Kotla pitch fiasco: Chetan Chauhan resigns

Zeecric Bureau New Delhi: In the fallout of cancellation of the final ODI between India and Sri Lanka due to an unsporting pitch at Feroze Shah Kotla Ground, former India cricketer Chetan Chauhan resigned from his post in the Pitch and Ground Committee. The pitch curator has also tendered his resignation after the much-awaited ODI was called off after the uneven bounce of the pitch yielded some bad blows to the batting side. The chairman of the committee Chetan Chauhan, convener Sunil Dev and curator Vijay Bahadur Mishra were among those who resigned after a meeting of top DDCA functionaries. "At a meeting of senior officials of DDCA , the chairman and members of pitch and ground committee of DDCA including the curator resigned owing moral responsibility after the abandonment of the India Sri Lanka ODI," DDCA Secretary S P Bansal said in a statement.The BCCI has also disbanded its grounds and pitches committee with immediate effect for the pitch fiasco. The game was abandoned after Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara refused to play on a dangerous pitch.The visitors were tottering at 83 for 5 when batsman Thilina Kandamby complained to the on-field umpires, which led to an on-field conference involving Match Referee Alan Hurst, India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Sangakkara, coaches from both sides Gary Kirsten and Trevor Bayliss and the Kotla curator Mishra. DDCA officials, including its vice president and former Test player Chetan Chauhan, offered another strip to Hurst but the match could not be saved. India have already pocketed the series 3-1. The BCCI and the DDCA have begun with their blame game with neither of the two bodies accepting full responsibility of the fiasco while the danger of a 2-year ban looms large over the ground.