North Indias hard weather and fog causing havoc

Veteran BCCI administrator Ratnakar Shetty says the board need to follow the advice of the technical committee headed by Sunil Gavaskar from ten years ago and refrain from holding any First-Class matches in the northern region of the nation between December 15 and January 15.The current Ranji Trophy included two matches at Jammu's Hostel Ground. Due to low visibility, only 107.3 overs were bowled in eight days. On the first three days of the second round match between Delhi and Jammu & Kashmir, only two overs could be played.There are other parts of the country suffering from the visibility-impairing fog besides Jammu & Kashmir. There were just 42 potential overs in the Haryana vs Rajasthan first-round match at Lahli. Merely 159.3 overs were bowled in the first round encounter between Chandigarh and Railways at the Sector 16 Cricket Stadium in Chandigarh, while only 26 overs could be played in the third round match between Gujarat and Chandigarh.The Ranji Trophy has been interrupted by the winter fog in northern India once more, leaving coaches and players to wonder why the matches are being played in low visibility and frequently damp outfield conditions.There have been overs and even days without a ball being bowled in matches over the first several rounds of the Ranji season, including the current third round in Delhi, Meerut, Chandigarh, Jammu, Lahli, Kanpur, and Mullanpur. The BCCI has been unable to come up with a workable solution for this long-standing issue.Teams have once again provided the Indian board with a list of potential fixes in case the crucial points are missed before the schedule is finalized for the upcoming campaign. Sunil Joshi, the head coach of Uttar Pradesh and a former spinner for India, believes that home games for the respective teams should be played later in the tournament and that north India should be left off of the schedule during the dead of winter."Look, in big tournaments like the Ranji Trophy, teams suffer losses if the matches are not completed," Joshi stated to ESPNcricinfo. "My recommendation is that, in situations where there is a lot of fog (or smog, in certain cases), north Indian teams should play their home matches in February, when the fog usually clears off. You'll be able to observe how many games during the previous two rounds were impacted by poor visibility or fog."In the most recent round, three matches—Uttar Pradesh vs. Bihar in Meerut, Punjab vs. Tripura in Mohali, and Chandigarh vs. Gujarat in Chandigarh—saw not a single ball bowled on the opening day, and Services vs. Jharkhand in Delhi, at the Palam stadium near the airport, began more than an hour late. Similar to this, during the first two rounds, there were time losses in the following matches: Uttar Pradesh vs. Bengal in Kanpur; Railways vs. Punjab in Mullanpur; Jammu & Kashmir vs. Delhi in Jammu; Chandigarh vs. Railways in Chandigarh; Jammu & Kashmir vs. Himachal Pradesh in Jammu; and Services vs. Rajasthan in Delhi. Late arrivals also had an impact on matches in Patna and other eastern Indian cities.Two of these matches, J&K against Delhi and Haryana vs Rajasthan, resulted in no innings being finished. Evidently, there were points lost or not won, which will affect the teams' ability to advance to the following round.

The Rajasthan coach, Anshu Jain, stated, "It would have been better if our matches in north India were held after January." In their debut match, played in Rohtak, Haryana, there were only 42 overs played. In their second match, they played 277.1 overs in Delhi against Services. This has already impacted two of our matches. Everyone is aware that fog exists in northern India during this season of the year. This would not have been an issue if we had been playing at our home  field in Jaipur, where the players would have had more opportunities to spend time on the field rather than in the pavilion. "I'm not advocating that the Ranji Trophy begin in October. That time, it was really hot, so this will make Even though the weather is constantly changing, it's widely accepted that it clears up towards the end of January, which makes it simpler to finish 90 overs a day in north India. "The Ranji Trophy cannot be held earlier as the [T20] Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and [one-day] Vijay Hazare Trophy are now held earlier due to the IPL auctions," Rajat Paliwal, the captain of the Services, stated. "Yes, it is preferable if the matches take place in south or west India throughout the first three rounds. We lost every day by 15 to 20 overs in our most recent encounter. Jammu saw very few overs being played, while the Delhi match (Arun Jaitley Stadium) was also impacted." Since it's India's premier first-class tournament and winning the Ranji Trophy is still highly regarded despite the IPL and other events, the other teams' concerns are still genuine. Whether a solution exists or not, nobody enjoys losing points that could be earned through lawful means.