'Does Delhi deserve any international sporting event at all?' - Bishan Singh Bedi on Twitter

The Men in Blue are all set to begin another phase of their preparation for next year’s ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in Australia with a three-match series against the Asian Tigers- Bangladesh. Regular Captain Virat Kohli has been rested for the rubber and in his absence vice-captain Rohit Sharma will take over the charge. India has included a couple of new faces into their T20 set-up while Yuzvendra Chahal, the RCB spearhead makes his return to the side.

Among the new faces included in the set-up is Mumbai and Royal Challengers Bangalore seam-bowling all-rounder Shivam Dube and Kerala and Rajasthan Royals tearaway wicketkeeper-batsman, Sanju Samson. While Dube has come in as a replacement for Hardik Pandya, who continues to recover from his lower-back injury, Samson has earned a national call-up courtsey his stonewalling, record-breaking double-hundred in the recently concluded Vijay Hazare Trophy.

But, leading into the three-match series, no one is talking about the squad or the composition of the set-up. Everyone is talking about the venue. Yep! The Arun Jaitley stadium is set to host the first T20I on November 03 but the prevailing and steadily deteriorating air in the national capital has become a source of contention.

Bishan Singh Bedi has his say on the hazardous Delhi air

On Tuesday, the air condition in Delhi went into the severe zone, prompting the environmentalists to write a letter to the head of the BCCI Sourav Ganguly where they requested the president to consider moving the first T20 from Delhi.

“In the light of extreme pollution in Delhi, we would like to request you to consider shifting the venue for the first T20 outside of Delhi. Making our cricketers play a physically demanding sport for 3-4 hours in Delhi’s toxic air will end up doing more damage to our cricket team’s health in the long run,”  Jyoti Pande of Care For Air and Ravina Raj Kohli of My Right To Breathe said in the letter as quoted by The Quint.

Joining the bandwagon now is the former Indian captain and champion spinner Bishan Singh Bedi, who on Wednesday took to Twitter where he asked that in the wake of “man-made” hazardous Delhi air, does the national capital deserves to host any sporting event.

Bedi tweeted, “In present state of ‘hazardous air quality’ n Delhi Let’s spare a thought fr Ind/B’Desh teams having to play T-20 on 3rd Nov at Kotla..Let’s accept our man made frailties w/Mother Nature..& ask does Delhi deserve any sporting event o International standard at all..?!!!

In present state of ‘hazardous air quality’ n Delhi Let’s spare a thought fr Ind/B’Desh teams having to play T-20 on 3rd Nov at Kotla..Let’s accept our man made frailties w/Mother Nature..& ask does Delhi deserve any sporting event o International standard at all..?!!!

— Bishan Bedi (@BishanBedi) October 30, 2019