The Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) has changed their stance regarding their initial criticism of the Shaheed Vijay Singh Pathik Stadium in Greater Noida, which is the venue of their one-off Test against New Zealand.
Yesterday, Afghanistan expressed their frustration over the lack of facilities and vowed not to play at the Greater Noida stadium ever again.
Furthermore, a source close to the ACB confirmed that their future home matches will be moved to Lucknow, owing to the mismanagement at this venue.
“There are no facilities. We will never come here again. Our preference will be Lucknow. There are no basic facilities. There is complete mismanagement at the venue. Even the players are not happy with training facilities and everything,” an ACB official said.
However, according to an Indian media report, Afghanistan reversed their stance in order to maintain healthy relations with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
Menhajuddin Raz, who is the International Cricket Manager of ACB, came forward and shared that the Afghan board chose Greater Noida as the venue from the three choices given by the BCCI.
“The BCCI offered us three venues – Kanpur, Bengaluru, and this one. We chose to play at Greater Noida as it was most convenient in terms of logistics. It was a two-hour drive from Delhi airport,” he stated.
“The venue has always been Afghanistan’s home venue. If we talk about back from 2016, we have been playing games here.
“It is because of the rain. Yesterday also, it rained. We had a three-day game here with one of the local teams which went well. We didn’t face any issues. But when the rain started and all of this happened.”
It must be noted that the third day of the Test between Afghanistan and New Zealand was also called off because of rain on Wednesday, with the match in danger of being washed out without a ball being bowled.
READ: Afghanistan-New Zealand Test faces complete washout after third day lost
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