The ongoing water crisis in Jharkhand will not be a hurdle in conducting IPl matches here at the JSCA stadium, if it gets shifted to another place due to acute water shortage in Maharashtra.
looking at the water crisis in Maharashtra, Bombay High Court has asked the BCCI to shift the matches scheduled to be held in Mumbai, Nagpur and Pune to some other places.
The JSCA, showing its interest in conducting matches in Ranchi, claimed that the cricket body is always ready to hold the matches in shortest possible time if desired by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the IPl Governing Committee.
The proposal from JSCA, otherwise involved in a legal battle with Heavy Engineering Corporation (HEC), has come when situation of water shortage in Ranchi is alarming. None of the 18 tube wells which were dug for water inside the stadium, are functional due to depleting water table in the area. The outfield, according to the officials, itself requires at least 7000 litres of water per day to maintain its greenery on the outfield.
“We are ready to conduct any international match here within a short notice of 12 days. We have already proved it during the last India - Sri lanka match played on February 12 last that we are capable of conducting match of international standard within minimum possible time,” said Curator SB Singh. “As far as maintenance of pitch during summers is concerned, it must be clarified that maintenance of pitch could be done even by tap water as it does not require much water,” he said.
The real challenge was to maintain the outfield that will not look as green as it should look like, if it is not properly irrigated with ample quantity of water for some time before the matches.
“But there is no harm in playing two or three matches with less grasses on the outfield in such circumstances when the whole country is going through acute water crisis,” said the Curator. He, however, said that with the given water supply they are presently getting for the outfield, matches could be easily conducted in Ranchi.
“Some of the media houses are misguiding the people and the court that maintenance of pitches requires huge quantity of water while the truth is opposite. Maintenance of pitches requires a few litres of water which could be met even with the tap water while rest of the water is consumed only to make the grasses on the outfield green so that it looks better on the screen or otherwise,” he said.
Presently, the requirement of water in the JSCA is being met with a single open well. “We are very cautiously using the water in the stadium which is supplied from the only open well in the stadium. The outfield is being reared with drip irrigation and no sprinklers are being used these days due to shortage of water in the area,” said Honorary Secretary of JSCA Rajesh Verma.
The Executive Engineer of Ranchi Municipal Corporation also maintained that there was no water connection to JSCA stadium and they are meeting their requirements thorough their own sources.
Meanwhile, in order to overcome acute water crisis and cater to huge requirement of water to maintain the JSCA stadium outfield, JSCA officials are planning to take help from Geological Survey of India (GSI) to tap underground water and also to collect it from other adjacent sources. At the same time, possibilities of water harvesting inside the stadium are also to be explored so that water from the natural drains could be trapped and stored in huge tanks to be used later as per the requirement.
Thirdly, instead of preparing sand based outfield, the cricket body was also planning to increase content of organic matter in order to give a boost to the growth of grasses on the outfield with water. Sand-based outfield is generally prepared to provide free flowing of water in case of heavy rains.