Former India captain Sourav Ganguly asked some hard questions to the Sri Lankan cricket team after they complained about air quality at Delhi’s Feroz Shah Kotla on Day 2 of the 3rd Test.
“It’s just that, the mask was on when they were fielding and no mask when they were batting, it has forced me to ask this question whether the Sri Lankan attitude was right or not,” Ganguly said.
On Sunday, during team India’s batting, Play was halted for 17 minutes after lunch as the visiting players, led by skipper Dinesh Chandimal, wanted to leave the field of play complaining of severe pollution. The Lankans were seen wearing anti-pollution masks during the post-lunch session. The play was halted between 12:32 pm to 12:49 pm after which the umpires and match referee David Boon convinced them to continue. However, there was another stoppage of play in the 127th over when Lakmal walked off the field after bowling the fifth ball. The umpires once again got together, chatting with Chandimal and Angelo Mathews. Sri Lanka manager Asanka Gurusinha and India coach Ravi Shastri also joined in.
“When they (Sri Lanka) came out to bat, I didn’t see any mask on all of those five batsmen who were at the crease. Nobody had the mask and if you look at the pavilion they were sitting in, there was no mask either. So, I don’t know how everything changed in such a quick time. If Gamage and Lakmal were running it with a mask, even Angelo Mathews was running for ones and twos. It’s the same thing. What surprised me is that they never complained, wore the mask or made a show of it. That’s the worrying bit and I hope the intentions were not bad,” Ganguly told India Today.
