Bright sunshine and a mild breeze greeted members of the India and England cricket teams who flew into Kangra Airport near here Thursday afternoon, says a report in Deccan Chronicle, adding that with scare stories rife about weather conditions and the harsh winter here likely to force a change in the venue of the fifth and final one-day international between the two sides, it was a surprise to drive into this picturesque hill town under clear blue skies.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have no idea how talk of the game being shifted got around,\u201d said a member of the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association here on the day. \u201cIn fact I got a call from Mohali to confirm whether our game here would in fact be played at Mohali itself,\u201d he added.
Weather reports point to clear \u2014 if cold \u2014 conditions here over the next three days, with the temperature varying from a high of six and eight degrees to a minimum of minus two degrees Celsius up to the weekend. The inconsequential final ODI is slated for Sunday with India having already won the series 3-1 with the five-wicket demolition of the visitors at Mohali on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
At 8:45 on Thursday evening, the Dharamshala temperature was shown as -1 degree Celsius. The minimum temperature for the day is forecast to be a degree warmer at 0 degree Celsius.<\/p>\n
Questions about the logic behind scheduling the first-ever international match here under such cold conditions have been raised from quite some time now. When asked by reporters, HPCA Secretary Vishal Marwaha said, \u201cThe hill station had been getting a fair bit of sunshine and that should be good for cricket. The day temperature is around 15 degree Celsius today and according to weather forecast it`s expected to climb to 19 degree around the match day, which the officials feel should be all right for the players as well the spectator.\u201d
He added, \u201cBesides hosting a first-class game involving Pakistan in 2005, the HPCA Stadium has also been the venue of IPL matches over the past couple of years, serving as the second home for the Kings XI Punjab franchise and is hopeful of getting a 50 over match.\u201d <\/p>\n
Traditionally, England players are accustomed to cold but on Thursday night, even Kevin Pietersen took to social networking site Twitter to describe the weather. “My toes are going to fall off too cold???? Google Dharamshala’s temps & you will see,” he wrote.<\/p>\n
A meteorological officer here was quoted by Indian Express saying that \u201csunny conditions are expected on Sunday when the two teams play and that the conditions would remain dry. The same report also said that the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA) officials are making every effort to make the players feel warm, literally.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bright sunshine and a mild breeze greeted members of the India and England cricket teams who flew into Kangra Airport near here Thursday afternoon, says a report in Deccan Chronicle, adding that with scare stories rife about weather conditions and the harsh winter here likely to force a change in the venue of the fifth […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[7675,7673,7600,7674,7656,1205,342,1153,7676],"class_list":["post-12567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-from-the-newspapers","tag-deccan-chronicle","tag-dharamshala-odi","tag-england","tag-first-ever-internatonal","tag-hpca","tag-india","tag-ipl","tag-kevin-pietersen","tag-weather"],"yoast_head":"\n