Shimla: Weeks ahead of the third match of the India-Australia Border Gavaskar series, for which the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA) was renovating the Dharamshala stadium, the venue was shifted to Indore’s Holkar stadium last Monday.
While an inspection team from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) cited poor grass density in the stadium outfield as the reason for declaring the ground unfit for the 1 March match, it was a combination of factors that eventually led to Himachal Pradesh losing out. Meanwhile, rumours are also swirling in the state about the reasons for the move from Himachal, where the Congress has been in power since December, to Indore in Madhya Pradesh, a BJP-ruled state.
The political speculation is further fuelled by the fact that BJP leader and Union sports minister Anurag Thakur continues to wield influence in the HPCA, even though he is no longer helming it.
However, state cricket officials and Congress functionaries that ThePrint spoke to said that linking the lost opportunity to politics was a stretch and that various other circumstances led to the delay in completing the renovations, including rains and a national-level conference chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last June.
The HPCA administration also said that the BCCI informed them about the match while the renovation work was already in progress.
Speaking to ThePrint, HPCA secretary Avnish Parmar said that the BCCI team had inspected the stadium on 3 February and had “flagged some issues”.
“We tried to fix them up,” he said, but acknowledged that more work had to be done.
“We are working on strengthening the cricket infra. This renovation will be completed soon. We are replacing the existing ryegrass with Bermuda grass. The stadium will look green throughout the year. I am sure it will host big matches with world-class facilities in the time to come,” Parmar added.
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What led to delays?
Renovation work on the stadium, which last hosted a Border-Gavaskar test match in 2017, started last May and was expected to be completed within eight months. The main purpose of the renovation was to improve the drainage system of the stadium, where many matches have been washed out due to the region’s unpredictable rains.
At the time, HPCA’s Arun Kumar Dhumal, who happens to be Anurag Thakur’s brother, had said that the cricket association was hoping to have the stadium ready for international matches by January 2023.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, an HPCA official outlined the various factors that had played spoilsport.
“Bad weather and some important events delayed the work. A national-level chief secretaries’ conference attended by the Prime Minister was held here and the renovation work had to stop for some time.”
The three-day conference in question concluded on 17 June. At that time, not even the half of the stadium was excavated for the drainage system repair and growing the grass, added the HPCA official.
Work resumed in the first week of July, he added, but then again stopped for two months due to the monsoon season. The renovation then started again in September.
A technical expert associated with the project said that after the drainage system repair, the sowing of seeds for the imported grass was scheduled to be done in November, but there were delays. Further, the growth of the grass was affected by the harsh winter and did not meet expectations, he added.
A second HPCA official said that the BCCI has been providing 90 per cent of the funds for the renovation and that the state cricket body was just a “facilitator”.
“The renovation was on when the match was scheduled here. The technical team as well as the HPCA put in an effort, but due to rains and the harsh winter, grass growth was erratic on some of the patches,” he said.
He professed that despite the delay of “two months”, the pitch was ready and the ground could be completed before the match date, but that it was more prudent to wait it out.
“There are certain protocols. A domestic match has to be organised before an international one so that the shortcomings can be overcome. A risk can’t be taken in this high-voltage test match,” he explained.
He added that had the ground been ready by now, a trial match could have been hosted ahead of the India-Australia Test.
Political backdrop
It is well known that where there are cricket boards, political connections are never far behind in India. Even reforms based on the 2016 Lodha committee recommendations, which attempted to reduce political influence in cricket governance among other things, have not quite altered this reality.
For instance, the BCCI secretary is Jay Shah, son of Union home minister Amit Shah and its treasurer is BJP leader Ashish Shelar.
In Himachal, the HPCA, which is affiliated with the BCCI, has for long been a province of the sons of former Himachal CM Prem Kumar Dhumal — Anurag Thakur and Arun Kumar Dhumal.
Thakur’s innings in the HPCA started before he entered active politics but continued well after he won his first Lok Sabha seat in 2008. The elder Dhumal scion, who has played cricket at the state level, headed the HPCA between 2000 and 2016 and was credited with developing much of the cricket infra in the state, including the stadiums in Dharamshala and Hamirpur.
This stint was not without controversy, including tussles with the late former Congress CM Virbhadra Singh, who had accused Thakur of using the HPCA for personal gain and other irregularities.
Thakur was also BCCI secretary from 2011 to 2016 and served briefly as BCCI president between May 2016 and January 2017, when he was removed for not complying with the Supreme Court’s orders on the implementation of Lodha committee reforms.
Meanwhile, his younger brother Arun Dhumal took over the reins of the HPCA from September-October 2019, and was treasurer of the BCCI from October 2019 to October 2022. He is currently chairman of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
The HPCA is currently headed by R.P. Singh, but the Dhumal-Thakur clan still has influence.
A former HPCA official, requesting anonymity, said: “HPCA is still in the shadow of Anurag Thakur. The entire infra and the reputation of the association was created by him. It is obvious that he has clout in the organisation.”
Given this backdrop, the HPCA’s current predicament has caused some speculation about a political aspect, but even local Congress leaders say it is unlikely.
“This seems to be a technical issue, as the HPCA or the technical team of the BCCI failed to prepare the ground on time,” said a Congress functionary. “The loss of the match will affect the HPCA more than it does the state government or others.”
The match being held in Dharamshala, though, would have benefited the state government, including from tax revenues.
An excise official told ThePrint: “The state would have earned revenue through GST on ticket sale, and other tourism activities. Matches in Dharamshala are big opportunities for people in terms of livelihood too.”
When asked if there could be additional layers to the recent episode, Naresh Chauhan, principal advisor to Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, said that the situation was “an internal matter of the cricket administration”.
“We were ready to provide all kind of assistance including law and order arrangements. Shifting the venue is a disappointment for business community and fans,” he added.
Speculations aside, it is the state which has lost in the end, and not just a match but also the much-needed revenue that it would have brought.
Blow to businesses, fans
The moving of the match out of Dharamshala is also a setback to the state’s tourism industry, which is still trying to recover from the fallout of the pandemic.
“This was the first big event scheduled in Dharamshala after Covid. We faced huge losses during Covid. We were hopeful of making it up this time,” said Sanjeev Gandhi, general secretary of the Dharamshala Hotel Association.
Blaming “mismanagement” on the part of the cricket authorities, he said, “They [BCCI] should have checked in advance whether the ground is ready or not.”
Chandigarh-based travel agent Samar Singh said, “I had arranged a stay and travel for two groups in Dharamshala. Now they have to pay the cancellation charges for everything.”
(Edited by Asavari Singh)
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