The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Ground staff deserve praise

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Mar 06, 2007
ePaper

Sport

Sport - Cricket

Ground staff deserve praise

Special Correspondent

Mumbai: The ground staff at the Sardar Patel Stadium, Motera and the Brabourne Stadium, Cricket Club of India (CCI) deserve a pat on their back for rolling out excellent tracks for the All Star Series Deodhar Trophy matches.

The wickets prepared for six matches played so far have measured up to the standard leaving no scope for the batsmen and the bowlers to complain.

Dhiraj Parsana and Prakash Adav were given the responsibility of preparing pitches at Motera and Brabourne Stadium.

Parsana has been a first class cricketer of merit; he's played for India and is a member of the BCCI's Pitch & Ground Committee, whereas Adav has been in-charge of the Brabourne Stadium for six years.

Consistent bounce

The track on which North and West Zones played at the Brabourne Stadium on Sunday was good.

There was consistent bounce for the seamers. With the grass trimmed nicely the outfield was fast.

It's because of the size of the ground at Motera and Dinsha Vaccha Road here that enabled Parsana and Adav to prepare separate wickets for six matches.

"I have had to take into consideration the changing weather pattern. There's no guarantee that it would not rain these days.

"I have to ensure that there's some moisture so that the seamers would come into the picture. The teams should get a fair chance and hence three different wickets for three matches," said Parsana.

Greater success

So far the batsmen have enjoyed greater success than the bowlers, but the medium pacers with ability to manipulate the seam — like Joginder Sharma and Jai Prakash Yadav — have succeeded.

Hopefully former India opener Sudhir Naik, who has earned a reputation for preparing sporting tracks for four-day and one-day matches, will do his best for the remaining matches at the Wankhede stadium.

West Zone with 14 points has virtually clinched the title. It can slip out of its hand only should North score wins with bonus points against South and East and West lose to South and also concede the extra point next Sunday.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport