Sourav Ganguly calls Oxygen-gate "a mockery of Test cricket'

SportsCafe Desk
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Sourav Ganguly has voiced his disappointed with Sri Lanka's behavior on Day 2 of the third Test and called “Oxygen-gate” a mockery of Test cricket. Yesterday, the play was interrupted as many as three times by the visitors because they faced claimed to have trouble breathing Delhi's "bad" air.

The second day of the final Test of the India and Sri Lanka series will be remembered for a long period, not because of Virat Kohli's sixth double century but for the unusual oxygen break taken by the Sri Lankan team. During India’s first innings when they were at 519/5, Lahiru Gamage was seeing coughing and appeared to have had trouble breathing which resulted in three back to back breaks that accounted for almost twenty minutes playing time. The former Indian skipper lashed out the players for their behavior during the game.

"It will be an absolute mockery of Test cricket. India were dominating. India beat them at Nagpur, India will beat them here. But if you have to slow down a Test match progress like this, it's very sad for cricket. Sri Lanka have the history of producing some fantastic cricketers and great cricket. They have never beaten India (in India) since the time they have started playing Test cricket. Look at the records, whether it is Arjuna Ranatunga, Aravinda de Silva, Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara, Muttiah Muralitharan, they still haven't beaten India. This is probably the weakest Sri Lankan team to tour India and to see this sort of a behaviour was not very good but I hope I am wrong," Ganguly told India Today.

Time and again break from the Sri Lankan players frustrated the Indian skipper who prematurely declared the innings at 536/7. Ganguly questioned the Sri Lankans for not wearing a mask while batting if it Delhi air was so uncomfortable. 

"Virat Kohli and the team management saw that the game is going away from their hands, they are losing time and they declared. Virat lost his concentration, the purpose of the game and got out. But when they (Sri Lanka) came out to bat, I didn't see any mask on all of those five batsmen who were at the crease. Nobody had the mask and if you look at the pavilion they were sitting in, there was no mask either. So, I don't know how everything changed in such a quick time. If Gamage and Lakmal were running it with a mask, even Angelo Mathews was running for ones and twos. It's the same thing. What surprised me is that they never complained, wore the mask or made a show off it. That's the worrying bit and I hope the intentions were not bad," Ganguly added.

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