BCCI president Sourav Ganguly on Monday thanked Indian captain Rohit Sharma and the Bangladesh cricket team for agreeing to play the first T20 International despite severe air pollution in the national capital.
The Delhi government had issued a health emergency across NCR as the toxic air quality in Delhi reached peak levels on Sunday morning with Air Quality Index (AQI) showing a staggering 999. However, both India and Bangladesh’s players chose to go ahead with the match on Sunday night at the newly renamed Arun Jaitley Stadium.
"Thank u to both the teams to play this game @ImRo45 @BCBtigers under tuff (sic) conditions .. well done bangladesh," BCCI president Ganguly tweeted from his official handle.
It was learnt that the BCCI president was apprehensive about going ahead with the game as there could have been serious health concerns but both Rohit and the Bangladesh team management assured him that they would like to play the game.
Ganguly has already said that next time when the board prepares an itinerary for home games, they would be "more practical" about slotting matches in Delhi in the post Diwali period when air pollution is at its peak.
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