The Sri Lankan players were at the receiving end of the smog at the capital of the country as they became the latest to be affected by the poor air quality in New Delhi. The Sri Lankan players started struggling from the post-lunch session and came out wearing masks. The play was interrupted for 16 minutes as the Sri Lankan team manager and other players continued their long and animated chat with the on-field umpires.
Almost all of the players was facing problems while breathing and the scenario was one of the rarest seen in a cricket field. I don’t remember in the past that when a match was halted due to poor air quality. The conversation with the Sri Lankan players and the on-field umpires continued. Sri Lankan team manager while Team India head coach Ravi Shastri came out to the ground to have a word with the umpire.
The Sri Lankan players kept on telling the on-field umpires that they lacked fielders to field for them after pacers Suranga Lakmal and Lahiru Gamage went off the field. The fielding coach Manoj Abeywickrama and Nic Lee, the trainer of the side, donned their full whites and was ready to go out whenever required.
“Four players were vomiting. A couple of players were struggling to breathe. With Sadeera Samarawickrama too unable to take the field due to mild concussions, we were running short of substitute fielders and were explaining our problems to the match officials,” a Sri Lanka Cricket spokesman was quoted as saying by the Cricbuzz.
As per the website which deals with real-time Air Quality Index (AQI) for more than 60 countries cited Delhi’s situation in most places as ‘Very Unhealthy’ on Sunday while declaring some other parts of the city as hazardous. It was very difficult for the visitors to continue playing which infuriated Virat Kohli. He had enough and decided to declare the innings making gesture marks towards the dressing room to end the innings and get ready to bowl.
