Two days before the Delhi T20I between India and Bangladesh, the air quality in Delhi has plummeted to hazardous levels, and led to a public-health emergency. Schools have been shut, construction work stalled, and athletic activity advised against, but the two teams trained out in the middle and continued to shrug off the threat of playing in such poor air quality.
This match is the first international fixture in India after Diwali, which raises severe questions over BCCI's planning because it is well documented that the weeks immediately after Diwali are some of the most hazardous on public health. The BCCI has had first-hand experience with Ranji Trophy matches cancelled and a Test match interrupted in the past.
The schedule was announced as early as June 2019. Match allocation in the BCCI works on rotation basis, but exchanging matches is not unheard of. However, the current BCCI office bearers took charge only last week, until when the board had been under the charge of the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators, who had been entrusted with ensuring the implementation of the Lodha Committee's reforms and overseeing the running of the board while that happened. So direct responsibility for this scheduling is hard to pin down.
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This match is the first international fixture in India after Diwali, which raises severe questions over BCCI's planning because it is well documented that the weeks immediately after Diwali are some of the most hazardous on public health. The BCCI has had first-hand experience with Ranji Trophy matches cancelled and a Test match interrupted in the past.
The schedule was announced as early as June 2019. Match allocation in the BCCI works on rotation basis, but exchanging matches is not unheard of. However, the current BCCI office bearers took charge only last week, until when the board had been under the charge of the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators, who had been entrusted with ensuring the implementation of the Lodha Committee's reforms and overseeing the running of the board while that happened. So direct responsibility for this scheduling is hard to pin down.
Pollution-related emergency in Delhi but T20I to go ahead
The city's air quality has fallen to hazardous levels post-Diwali, calling to question the BCCI's scheduling of fixtures
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