Drying pitch using hair dryer and steam iron is from 2020’s T20 match in Guwahati, not IPL finals.
Claim
BCCI have lots of Fund But this is shameless no proper equipment. For IPL the BCCI have no idea what’s the value of IPL
Rating
Explanation
The IPL 2023 finals between CSK and GT was interrupted due to rain and the match was resumed once the rain stopped. Multiple visuals of the ground staff at Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad are seen manually soaking the rainwater with large sponges. Multiple social media users slammed the Board of Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) for not having the proper equipment to drain the ground.
Made in India product of Aatmnirbhar Bharat used in stadium to dry the pitch at Narendra Modi stadium ❤️
#CSKvGT pic.twitter.com/2lphUkGZmv
— Dr Nimo Yadav (@niiravmodi) May 29, 2023
Meanwhile, a couple of photos including a hair dryer and a steam iron being used on the ground to dry the pitch are being shared widely claiming that the photos were from IPL 2023 finals. Some of the users captioned the image as Made in India product of Aatmnirbhar Bharat used in stadium to dry the pitch at Narendra Modi stadium. Some of the posts with such a claim can be seen here, here and here.
What is the truth?
When searching with relevant keywords we found that the images are old and not from the 2023 IPL finals.
A tweet dated 5, January 2020 by Azzam Ameen, a Journalist from Sri Lanka is found carrying an image of a person drying the pitch using hair dryer with the caption “The hair dryer and steam iron are being used now to dry the pitch. Sri Lanka should have taken R Premadasa stadium rain covers to India”. Hashtag ‘IND vs SL’ is seen in the tweet.
With further search, the crictracker website is found carrying both the images of drying the pitch using hair dryer and a steam iron. This article dated 5, January 2020 mentions that India’s first T20 International was delayed due to heavy rain. And the ground staff brought hair dryer to dry the wet patches on the pitch.
It further mentioned “Not only this, even the steam iron is being used to get the pitch ready in order to make the play possible. While there is no doubt about the groundstaff’s dedication at work, usage of hair dryer and steam iron is looking funny.” Indian Express reported the incident mentioning that hair dryer and steam iron were used to dry the Guwahati pitch during the T20I between India and Sri Lanka. The article mentioned, “Kohli also inspected the pitch as hairdryer and steam iron were used by the groundsmen.”
India Today’s Youtube channel is found uploading a news video related to the incident of using hair dryer and steam iron to dry a wet cricket pitch. The description part reads “How Bizarre! After India won the toss, the match was called off due to rain. The Guwahati ground staff caught eyes as they were spotted using steam iron and hair dryers to dry the wet pitch”.
Conclusion
It is found that the photos showing the ground staff drying the wet cricket pitch using hair dryer and steam iron are not from the 2023 IPL finals but from the 2020 T20I between India and Sri Lanka in Guwahati.
