Fact Check: Did Groundsmen Use Hair Dryer, Iron To Dry Up Pitch in IPL 2023 Finals

The Narendra Modi stadium in Gujarat is the world's largest. The IPL finals between the Chennai Super Kings and the Gujarat Titans was a thriller with the former finally lifting the cup.

The game had to be rescheduled from May 28 to 29 due to heavy rains in Ahmedabad. On the reserve day to rains interrupted the game and the match was finally reduced to 15 overs.

Following the game, many on the social media criticised the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the drainage infrastructure at the stadium. The first image that was shared showed a hair dryer being used to dry up the pitch. "The best cricket stadium in India, Narendra Modi Stadium is dried by a hair dryer. World's richest cricket league managed by the richest cricket body can't afford a better drainage system," one user wrote.

The other image showed a clothes iron being used to dry the pitch.

OneIndia has found that both images are over three years old and are from Assam. We found a news report that said groundsmen at the Narendra Modi stadium used sponges to dry the soaked pitch. The staff managed to apply what looked like a mixture of sawdust and green sand and then went on to roll over the surface and use the super copper to speed up the drying process.

None of these reports mentioned the use of a hair dryer or iron to dry the pitches. However reports published noted the use of hair dryers in the outfield. The images used in these reports were the same as the viral ones.

A reverse image search of the first image of a hair dryer led us to a report by The Quint from January 6 2020. This made it clear that the image was not from the IPL 2023 finals. As per this report, India and Sri Lanka were to begin a T20. Series in Assam, but the match was called off due to heavy rain. The groundsmen at the Barsapara cricket stadium used hacks such as hair dryers and steam irons to remedy the pitch.

Cricket commentator, Harsha Bhogle too retweeted a tweet on January 5 2020 featuring a collage of these images and captioned it, 'hopefully this won't happen again.'

Hence it is evident that the images that have gone viral are not from the Narendra Modi stadium, but are from Assam. Moreover the images are three years old and not from the recently concluded IPL 2023 finals.