India’s first game of their South Africa tour was abandoned yesterday (December 10) as a steady drizzle kept the players away from the field at Kingsmead, Durban. The toss, which was scheduled for 4 pm local time, never took place due to the weather.

While the pitch and surrounding areas were under covers, the majority of the outfield was not, something which former India captain Sunil Gavaskar took objection to.

Covers on at Kingsmead with rain about. Crossing fingers that the weather clears up! #SAvIND pic.twitter.com/rMdZy2Icxu

— Kass Naidoo (@KassNaidoo) December 10, 2023

While speaking on-air to Star Sports, Gavaskar pointed out the perils of not covering the entire ground when it rains. “If the ground remains uncovered and the rain stops, you know it doesn’t start for another hour,” Gavaskar said. “Suddenly it rains again, so there’s no play whatsoever.”

Gavaskar elaborated that despite the financial gulfs between cricket boards around the world, every board has sufficient funds to be able to afford covering entire grounds.

“All the cricket boards have got plenty of money. If they say they don’t, they are lying. They might not have as much money as the BCCI, fair enough. But every board has enough money to buy these covers to cover the entire ground,” said Gavaskar.

Gavaskar pointed out similar incidents from the 2019 World Cup in England. “So many World Cup matches in England did not take place because the ground was not covered,” Gavaskar said. “The rain had stopped but the rest of the ground was wet. So a lot of teams lost points.”

Four matches were washed out at the 2019 World Cup in England.

Gavaskar gave the example of the Eden Gardens and how the entire ground gets covered whenever there’s rain around: “Sourav Ganguly was the man in charge and he made sure that nobody could point the finger at Eden Gardens.”

The second game of the series will be played in Gqeberha tomorrow (December 12). Rain is expected for that game as well.