What happened was unfortunate, but demonising the DDCA and BCCI was uncalled for. As Mahela and Murali said, the pitch had not been getting much action, and the curator tried something different. Nobody wants to prepare a dangerous pitch, least of all, those associated with a key venue such as this. Some experts, fans and journalists bring up previous matches at Kotla, such as the Champions' League, but those pitches were just plain dull. They were not lethal, like this one.
Those who suggest the Delhi should be suspended, even for a day, are jumping the gun. It's an honest mistake; the curator admits it, the committee admits it, the DDCA admits it. This is one of the few world class grounds in the country, and can offer a lot more than some other places, with poor infrastructure, inadequate facilities and ill-behaved, partisan crowds. In this case, the BCCI can step in and take control of the ground and possibly the DDCA, for an interim period, until things are back to normal.
We saw a practice match at Hampshire for the India tour in 2002 played on a bad wicket. Both teams agreed to withdraw the faster bowlers, and the match lasted the whole duration. Hampshire is now an international venue. Irate Indian fans remember New Zealand, where a whole tour was played on pitches like these, and there were some deliveries which hit the Indian batsmen hard- like two that snorted at Parthiv Patel in the second innings at Hamilton. Rather than blame the pitches, many blamed the batsmen from both teams (mostly Indian) for lack of application. There may be other instances less famous, but none have created as much outrage as this one, so theres' no need for the "Ban Delhi" calls. It was a mistake, we all admit it, but letting the situation go out of control was a failure as well.
