Rain, inefficiency leave Mumbai on the edge

MUMBAI: Mumbai's campaign in this edition of the Ranji Trophy is threatening to meet a sorry end.
A wet outfield, following overnight rain, on Thursday ensured that their crucial match against Himachal Pradesh at the HPCA Stadium in Dharamshala was washed out. After they made 372 for five in 75 overs on Day One, Mumbai were forced to stay indoors for the next three days as bad weather and lack of adequate facilities at the venue didn't allow a single ball to be bowled thereafter.
The washout also denied Sarfaraz Khan a rare chance of becoming the first batsman in First Class cricket to slam consecutive triple hundreds, stranded as he was on an unbeaten 226.
Having collected just one point from their latest outing, Mumbai are now languishing in 12th spot in the combined Elite Group table, and must record outright wins over Saurashtra at Rajkot (from February 4-8), and then against Madhya Pradesh at the Wankhede at home (February 12-15) to hope for any chance of making it to the semifinals.
While they must blame themselves for losing outright at home to Railways and Karnataka, Mumbai were left ruing a clear case of lack of planning and foresight on part of the Board in this case. That rain had begun to play havoc with cricket in Dharamshala was evident when the last two days of Himachal's previous game, against Baroda, held from January 19-22 there, were washed out.
"Everyone knew that it would rain incessantly from the moment we arrived here. The BCCI could've scheduled this game anywhere, perhaps at the Wankhede itself. Certainly, the venue could've been shifted. At this stage of the tournament, all the teams are looking for valuable points, and it's unfair for any side to go through this," lamented Mumbai coach Vinayak Samant.
To make it worse, there were no covers at the HPCA Stadium beyond the 30-yard circle, which meant that the game could never resume due to a wet outfield despite there being sunshine on two days. "When I asked the groundsman (Sunil Chauhan) about the missing covers beyond the 30-yard circle, I was told that they'd been sent to Una for BCCI women's Under-23 matches," said Samant.
Clearly, this speaks poorly about the efficiency of a Test centre. "It's unfortunate that despite getting crores from the BCCI in terms of their annual grant, some associations don't even spend on basic infrastructure on the ground," said former India skipper Dilip Vengsarkar.
"I can fully understand Mumbai's plight. When I was the coach of Jammu & Kashmir, I had proposed in the Ranji captains and coaches conclave that the Board should avoid scheduling matches in the north in the months of December and January. We too faced this problem when the final day of our match against Tamil Nadu at Kanpur was ruined due to bad light, and we lost three points due to this factor," said former India left-arm spinner Sunil Joshi, who's coaching Uttar Pradesh this season.
The BCCI, on its part, expressed its helplessness with the situation. "How can we foresee the weather? It's January end, and it's raining in Delhi, the east, and in Bangalore also. How can we fight this global change in weather pattern? I believe in the end it balances out. All the teams suffer one way or the other. We try our level-best to accommodate everybody, but it's no possible," said BCCI GM, cricket operations, Saba Karim, a former India wicketkeeper.