Players, fans, media personnel, and concessionaires all had reason to bemoan the abandonment of the second Test between West Indies and England yesterday at the Vivian Richards Cricket Ground.
Players, fans, media personnel, and concessionaires all had reason to bemoan the abandonment of the second Test between West Indies and England yesterday at the Vivian Richards Cricket Ground.
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Spare a thought however, for the man whose name adorns the ground.
Sir Viv, the former West Indies captain, watched the farce unfold right before his eyes from the air-conditioned comfort of the BBC Test Match Special commentary box.
A fiercely proud man, native of Antigua & Barbuda, and one who personified the excellence and greatness of the game, he was gutted by the shambles.
"This is an arrow right through my heart," he exclaimed on the BBC Radio.
"This is not a shot in the foot for West Indies cricket. This is an arrow right through the heart. This is a huge pill to swallow."
The Test was abandoned after only 10 balls as England reached seven without loss, when match officials felt the sandy outfield particularly in the area of the bowlers' run-ups, were too dangerous to allow the sham to continue.
"I am ashamed to have my name associated with this," Richards said. "The members and officials of the Antigua & Barbuda Cricket Association should hang their heads in shame.
"For these people to tell everyone that the ground was ready is a huge lie. They have been telling little porky pies. You can make excuses for certain people at times, but with so many experts around there can be no excuse.
He added: "The reputation of Antigua & Barbuda is in these people's hands. There are a lot of guys in the background who should have known better, that this ground wasn't ready.
There have been countless problems with the outfield at the VRCG which was constructed at a cost of over $20 million with assistance from the Chinese Government ahead of the 2007 World Cup in the Caribbean.
Local knowledge indicates that it was built in a basin near a well-known water course, and this led to problems of poor drainage when rainfall collected on parts of the outfield.
The Antigua & Barbuda Government promised remedial work would be done - and it was - with little success.
Several hours of playing time was lost in a drawn Test against Australia last year, when a squall again invaded and reduced parts of the outfield to a swamp.
Though the sun shone brilliantly and ground-staff employed various measures to dry the surface, the damage was significant.
More promises were made to the West Indies Cricket Board and they assigned the second Test on the assurance of the Antigua authorities that would get it right next time.
"Let me apologise to everyone on behalf of the WICB for what can only be described as an embarrassment," WICB President Julian Hunte said following the fiasco.
"I have been assured that the venue was checked because we have an operations department, and they worked closely with the ACA to get the ground ready.
Late last year, a regional company which had produced quality outfields at three other venues for the World Cup in the Caribbean was hired to relay the surface.
But they discovered a number of anomalies and the project timeline was doubled, plus 10 days were lost to facilitate a concert being staged during the Christmas holidays.
But the WICB should have taken a clue that all was not right a month ago, when the ACA insisted that it would not host a West Indies first-class championship match between Leeward Islands and Guyana at the ground.
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