Delhi Smog: Difficult to play cricket wearing masks, says Sourav Ganguly

Delhi smog has hogged all the limelight away from the third and final Test going on between India and Sri Lanka at the Feroz Shah Kotla stadium.

Right from day one, the Sri Lankan players have been struggling to run and breathe in the smoggy conditions of Delhi and on Tuesday, even Indian pacer Mohammed Shami looked like he was uneasy after bowling a couple of bouncers that got him the wicket of Sadeera Samarawickrama.

There has been a lot of debate whether the trouble being shown by Sri Lankan players is genuine or not but everyone has agreed to the point that Delhi was not the ideal place to hold a Test match at this time of the year.

Sourav Ganguly expressed that it seemed to him like the conditions are only getting tougher and while the intensity of the problem is known only to the players, it is tough to see masks on a cricket field.

"It seems it's getting tough. I saw Mohammed Shami also struggling a bit when he bowled late in the evening today, struggling to run in like Lakmal, he struggled. Like we saw last year Bengal and Gujarat game (Ranji Trophy) was called off because of smog in Delhi, not a single ball was bowled in all four days. Definitely there are issues, how much it is you really don't know because we are far from it, how much the players feeling it but it is so difficult to see masks on a cricket field," Ganguly said to India Today.

Ganguly added that he doesn't know how the Sri Lankans are properly breathing with those masks on but the issue has to be considered and hoped that all cricketers finish the game healthy.

"I don't know how they breathe, how they keep running and how they play cricket because you have to breathe properly and I don't know whether with those masks, you can do it. This needs to be taken into consideration at some stage when winter comes and Delhi gets a game, may be give Delhi a game before Diwali or after New Year or may be in the month of February and March when everything settles down. This needs to be genuinely looked at and I hope they all finish the game healthy," Ganguly added.