India vs Afghanistan: BCCI’s scheduling choices in spotlight once again after 2nd ODI draws sparse crowd amid intense heat

India produced a comprehensive performance in the second ODI against Afghanistan in Lucknow on Wednesday, outplaying their opponents with bat as well as with ball to clinch the three-match series with a game to spare.

However, it wasn’t just India’s dominant performance and the display of their bench strength that was a key takeaway from Wednesday’s 50-over fixture. The day-night match at the Ekana Cricket Stadium, which has a capacity of 50,000, barely drew any crowd for the second one-dayer and it hardly appeared as if the Shubman Gill-led side were playing a match on home soil.

The Men in Blue are used to drawing massive crowds whichever part of the world they visit, especially England and Australia, and a full house in a white-ball game in India – a country that treats cricket as a religion – is almost taken for granted.

However, the sight of empty stands became a major talking point during the course of the second one-dayer, putting the spotlight once again on the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s questionable choices when it comes to its scheduling.

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Cramps take centre-stage in scorching conditions in Lucknow

For starters, Afghanistan’s tour is taking place in the middle of the Indian summer. Cricket matches in India are usually held from the months of October to March in order to avoid the scorching heat during the summer months. And while the Indian Premier League takes place from late March to May, matches are usually held in the evening, when temperatures are a lot more bearable.

It would, therefore, have been understandable from the perspective of spectators if they did not want to attend a day game with the temperature exceeding 40 degrees Celsius. However, the players and others such as photographers attending the event did not have any such choice, and had to go about their day in testing conditions.

The result? Physios from both camps spent the entire day running to and fro between the centre and the dugout as multiple players pulled up with cramps. India captain Gill did not take the field for the remainder of the innings after his match-winning knock, with Shreyas Iyer leading the hosts during the second innings.

Gill later praised his bowling department for restricting Afghanistan to 232 and securing a lopsided victory for the hosts in such testing conditions.

"The way our fast bowlers are bowling in this heat, on these wickets, it's not easy to keep hitting the deck, keep hitting those areas consistently with that pace," Gill said during the post-match presentation ceremony.

Why BCCI finds itself under the scanner for its scheduling choices 

It's not the first time the BCCI has been questioned over their scheduling decisions in recent years. It's not even the first such instance involving Lucknow's Ekana Stadium, which had been inaugurated in 2017 and hosted its first international fixture the following year.

The board, after all, had scheduled a T20I against South Africa last December, at a time when a majority of cities in northern India face severe levels of air pollution, at this venue. Predictably, the fourth match of the five-T20I series had to be called off without a ball bowled.

Similar episodes have played out in other cities, especially in Delhi where pollution had caused major problems during the 2023 ICC World Cup.

And before the T20Is, India and South Africa had played two Tests in Kolkata and Guwahati in the month of November – at a time of the year when cities in the eastern and north-eastern parts of the country experience early sunsets. As a result, umpires were forced to end the day's play earlier than scheduled on almost all days across the series due to poor light.

As for the ongoing series, the ODI series will be concluding on Saturday in Chennai, the city located on India's southern coast along the Bay of Bengal that is just as hot and even more humid. Expect more fitness-related issues at Chepauk this weekend, with opting to bat being a no-brainer for the captain winning the toss.