Delhi to hold the first T20I match between India and Bangladesh despite problems with air quality

The India and Bangladesh three-match T20I series will get underway from November 3 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi. The Bangladesh tour to India will also feature two Test matches to be played on November 14 in Indore and November 22 in Kolkata, under the ICC Test Championship. Bangladesh is yet to beat India in the T20I or Test format for that matter.

However, the series has been in news for some time now thanks to the much talked about spat between players and Bangladesh cricket board which led to more than 50 players going on strike in order to get across their 11 demands covering various points. The BCB then met the players and agreed to those demands. Now there are furthermore problems as Tamim Iqbal opting out of the tour and Shakib also suspected to do the same.

Air quality dips to ‘very poor’ in Delhi ahead of the first T20I between India and Bangladesh

But this time, the issue is with the venue of the first T20I match, the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi where the air quality has deteriorated quite badly after Diwali.  “We had taken permission from Delhi Pollution Control Committee and they gave November 3 as clear day so we decided to fix the Delhi venue after their consultation. As of now everything is fixed and I don’t see any change in plan,” BCCI sources was quoted as saying by India Today.

The System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR) graded the air quality of Delhi on the morning after Diwali as very poor. An AQI between 0 and 50 is considered ‘good’, 51 and 100 ‘satisfactory’, 101 and 200 ‘moderate’, 201 and 300 ‘poor’, 301 and 400 ‘very poor’, and 401 and 500 ‘severe’. As per the authorities, the most polluted locations post-Diwali are Delhi University (North Campus), Pusa, Rohini-Punjabi Bagh, Wazirpur, Jahangirpuri, DTU, and Bawana.

This issue was also highlighted in 2017 when Sri Lanka toured India and played a Test match in Delhi. The Lankan players were seen wearing masks in order to save themselves from pollution during the fielding. This had led to severe criticism of the board to schedule matches in Delhi which is highly polluted especially in winter due to firecrackers.

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