New Delhi: Sri Lanka paceman Suranga Lakmal vomited on the field before walking off as Delhi’s notorious smog, which may rob the Indian capital of future winter Tests, continued to plague the third and final game here, Tuesday.
India’s second innings was into its sixth over when Lakmal was seen bending over and throwing up. The Sri Lankan physio rushed in and eventually walked off with the player. Lakmal, who returned to bowl the 11th over, and pace colleague Lahiru Gamage had also walked off, Sunday with discomfort.
However, in another development, BCCI’s rotation policy might do what Sri Lankan team’s complaints of poor air quality could not – keep international cricket away from Delhi at least till 2020.
“BCCI is pitching for their exclusive home season slot in February-March every year. They will only get that slot in February-March 2020 as per the new Future Tours Programme (FTP). Therefore, Kotla may or may not be in line for a Test match before 2020,” a senior BCCI stated Tuesday.
“As per the rotation policy, Kotla has now got its Test match and in November it got an ODI. Their turn will not come next year as India will perhaps have at the most one full fledged series,” the official added.
The Sri Lankan grievance came close on the heels of the furore that preceded last month’s Delhi Half Marathon which took place despite high pollution levels and an appeal by the Indian Medical Association (IMA) to cancel the event.
The Indian team, however, have taken the conditions in their stride with pacer Mohammed Shami casually stating that they are ‘used to suffering’ and didn’t want to make a big deal out of it.
