The former Chairman of DDCA Pitches? Committee, Chetan Chuahan, breaks his silence on NewsX

MUMBAI: Speaking exclusively to NewsX, the former Chairman of the DDCA Pitches‘ Committee, Chetan Chauhan, defended the pitch at the Kotla ground.

Speaking for the first time since the Ferozeshah Kotla fiasco on Sunday, Chetan Chauhan told NewsX: "The Sri Lankans chickened out, there was nothing wrong with the Kotla track."

Chauhan issued a spirited defence of the Kotla track, where the India-Sri Lanka one-dayer was abandoned after a number of Lankan batsmen were hit by dangerous deliveries.

Chauhan placed the blame squarely on the BCCI‘s shoulders, saying, "We only followed the instructions the BCCI Pitches‘ Committee chief, Daljit Singh, gave us. The Kotla pitch was difficult, but not impossible to play on. I have played international cricket on worse pitches."

However, the NewsX cricket expert Bishan Singh Bedi countered Chauhan‘s stance, saying, "The pitch was terrible, and a Sri Lankan batsman could have been killed. The DDCA and Chetan should thank God that the Indians weren‘t batting and it wasn‘t Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir who were hurt. The pitch was a shame."