Sri Lankan cricket team struggle to breathe in New Delhi due to air pollution

[$@rJen]

You are really disgrace to your country. People can't breath properly because of pollution in that city and you are here to tell us how great your cricket match performance was?

We're feeling sorry for the poor lankans who acted like a little kids.... When they couldn't take wickets they started complaining....

 

[Godman]

So the lankans saw the humiliation ahead. They couldn't get the wickets of Indians then they started to complain like a teen ...

They didn't want another humiliation like the second match..

Its great that your stupid attitude was answered by everyone including Indians. You don't see people being proud of pollution everyday
An article on your type of stupidity with a really great sarcasm

Sri Lanka's struggles no Machiavellian plan
play



1:14
/
1:14




UP NEXT
Dobell: England Ashes hopes are slipping away

10:42 PM IST

• Sidharth Monga in Delhi

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Facebook Messenger
• Pinterest
• Email
• print
• comment

Sri Lanka are an unsporting cricketing nation. In fact they can put village cricketers to shame. There is no low they won't stoop to just to deny the opposition a hard-earned milestone. You know Suraj Randiv, of course. He bowled that no-ball to deny Virender Sehwag an ODI century. They have even forced the ICC to outlaw sudden captaincy changes by executing a captaincy switch to save their real captain from an accumulated over-rate penalty that could result in a match ban. Why, even as recently as Kolkata, as Sri Lanka played for a draw, Niroshan Dickwella hypnotised Mohammed Shami and Virat Kohli into wasting their own time by going after him verbally.

Coming to Delhi, however, Sri Lanka knew they would need something truly diabolical to prevent India from racking up more records. Well they were assured a record-free hour every day - 40 minutes of lunch and 20 minutes of tea - but what about the rest? Things were pretty grim when a few of the leadership group went out for dinner after the first day's play when a Virat Kohli quadruple-hundred and a fitting reply to their 952 couldn't be ruled out.

What these gents saw on the way to their dinner was nothing short of an epiphany. They saw a young man wearing a pollution mask being derided for not being man enough to face the Delhi pollution unmasked. The guys doing the deriding drove a Mahindra Thar, an inscription on which said: "Real men die without airbags."

Over that dinner this Machiavellian plan was discussed in thorough detail. The mask and the macho bravado were the things they were going to play on. They were apprised of the pollution situation in Delhi. They learnt all about the rampant deforestation and unplanned urbanization, so a majority of their work was done. They were also told by their spies about possible triggers that could send the "very poor" air to "severe" levels. They decided they couldn't cause dust storms in gulf countries - not yet anyway - but they immediately sent men with heavy bribes to make sure farmers burnt their crop stubble in Punjab and Haryana, and that there were fireworks at wedding parties in Delhi. Models were arranged to teach the players how to vomit on demand.

Like all shrewd plans, this relied on the deep knowledge of the psyche of the opponent. They knew a majority of India would work itself into a lather seeing such a cowardly bunch of cricketers. The "loser" chants and the boos were par for the course. They knew India cricketers will forget that a recent India cricketer, Ashish Nehra, had moved out of Delhi because of the pollution. They knew India will not think that these cricketers come from a country where the Air Quality Index (AQI) hovers around 50, and that they will outrage at their inability to play when it is "only" 300 or so.

Having failed at everything else, this was their final plan to get Kohli out, just by breaking his rhythm and frustrating him. In fact this plan sounded so good that a young star even berated Kumar Sangakkara for not coming up with similar trickery when Chris Gayle scored 333 against them. It was decided, however, to give it one more session before executing this plan. Kohli left them no option as he moved effortlessly to 225 by lunch. Twenty minutes after lunch, Lahiru Gamage kick-started the proceedings by doubling over and pretending to breathe uneasily. The play was stopped for 17 minutes, which meant Sri Lanka knew India would want to score in one ball all the runs that should have been scored in those 17 minutes. R Ashwin played at a wide ball, and gully took the resultant catch.

Lahiru Gamage struggled to cope with the conditions BCCI
The details that the discussion went to are incriminating. It was decided nobody would carry a purpose-built mask to filter the Delhi air; instead they chose to look helpless and pitiable in those surgical masks that would be available with the medical staff at the ground.

The plan worked like a charm. Kohli was blinded in rage and missed the kind of deliveries he had been clipping away for four blindfolded for two days. The final piece of the plan was to offer the Indian slips a copious amount of catches, which they were sure they would drop even in Switzerland, thus proving that the pollution did play a part in the day's proceedings. As we speak, the scheming bastards are enjoying a celebratory drink on the rooftop of their hotel. Without a mask.


The crowd at Feroz Shah Kotla, themselves a victim of this horrible situation in Delhi, chanted "losers, losers" and booed them. The BCCI president was quoted as having questioned Sri Lanka's motives by saying the crowd didn't have an issue with the pollution so why did the bowlers who had performed a highly demanding job for only four sessions complain? B Arun, India's bowling coach who was Hyderabad coach when their match in Delhi was called off last year, albeit in much worse conditions, called the stoppages unnecessary because pollution is everywhere in India. Hindi commentators joked on air that the players were using masks to only hide their faces after having taken the beating of their lives. Prominent people on Twitter lauded Indian cricket team's nationalism as they sacrificed their health to entertain the crowd that had turned up.

In unison, the country took pride in being more used to "very poor" levels of pollution than players from an island known for its cleanliness. For once the joke is not on cricket.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/21652573/sri-lanka-struggles-no-machiavellian-plan

 

[ashok321]

As per the latest WHO map, India is 95% polluted

Word to the wise should suffice.

India is 95% polluted and the most polluted 2 cities are Delhi (where PM lives and does nothing) and Varanasi which is the constituency of PM Modi again.

What does he do against this?
Nothing.

How many dollars has he earmarked for such catastrophe?
Nothing.

Any pollution Yojna?

 

[Ashesh]

Modi should resign!

 

[rishav]

srilankans are nautanki baaz , why didn't they come out to bat with masks then ? they should have just walked away and stopped playing all together , why were they happy to bat ? and why suddenly after lunch they started feeling uncomfortable ? there were no signs of any discomfort before lunch. Their nautanki in the first test also was seen by all and how much low lives they can be can be seen in that sehwag's 99 and intentional no ball case. The air quality was horrible , so they should have refused to play the match . But no they are happy to bat and have problem only while fielding and that too only when their bowlers were starting to get hammered all over the park by kohli . pretty convenient

 

[fallstuff]

Realtime Delhi Air Quality

 

[SleeveofWizard]

Living next to India is horrendous, all the air pollution and rancid stench of India effect Pakistan too, the further from the border you get the cleaner it is

The further from the Indian border you are, the higher the chance of becoming the target of a predator drone or bomb attack. Life's a blast in cities like Quetta, Peshawar.. etc.

 

[Śakra]

Why are we even playing with lankans? Have we forgotten the Ramayan??

 

[HeinzG]

It was rather unprofessional of Kholi to not stand with Sri Lankan players. He has shown is smugness again.

Are people on sri lankan board stupid who agreed for the venue without checking first? Stop whinning and please explain why only in delhi your batsmen performed?

It is also Indian authorities' responsibility to check the condition of the environment before selecting venues. Our fools have no idea how to run a sports team. So it is useless to blame them.

 

[Areesh]

The further from the Indian border you are, the higher the chance of becoming the target of a predator drone or bomb attack. Life's a blast in cities like Quetta, Peshawar.. etc.

They played in Lahore and everything went fine.

You can keep dying inhaling sh!t in your national capital.

 

[HeinzG]

Kohli’s Declaration a Sign of How Much Indian Cricket Ignores Medical Opinions

https://thewire.in/201647/kohlis-declaration-sign-much-india-cricket-ignores-medical-opinions/

On Sunday, India chose to risk – as it is entitled to – bowling in unhealthy conditions but that does not afford the team a higher moral ground. By not siding with Sri Lanka, it has in no way shown that it has superior athletes. Instead, they have been put in harm’s way.

Only if Virat Kohli and his teammates could heed his own advice from a few weeks ago: “If we have to win this match against the pollution, we all have to come forward and fight against it. It is our responsibility to reduce the pollution levels. Especially the people from Delhi, it’s their responsibility.”

While it is not the wisest move to lay the onus on citizens when the state is turning a blind eye, perhaps the Indian team could have taken a strong stance against playing in a harmful atmosphere. Then again, there was also a match to win, and only Sri Lanka could be bothered to protest. At the end of the day’s play, the visitors must have breathed a collective sigh of relief. One only hopes that it was not on the field.

 

[samv]

If Sri Lanka can't handle it, they need to get the hell out. But no, greedy for money looks like.

 

[ashok321]

Sri Lankan cricket team struggle to breathe in New Delhi due to air pollution

Are these Sri Lankans stupid, our PM lives in Delhi too - one Bhakt on Twitter

But this Bhakt Knows not, that the PM lives under Hepa filters that Indians can not afford.

 

[xyxmt]

Kindly tell this to pcb they r begging for a series in india. Kindly advice them to save their fefde be it smog in delhi or shouting while begging for a bilateral series.

they want to show "Kohli Who" signs in Indian Capital
we all know BCCI trying to save Indian boys from best pace attack so Kohli can break records

 

[313ghazi]

The Sri Lankan team should have walked off. There is no way any of the white teams would have played in such filth - they value the lives of their players.