The Hindu : Sport : Pitches in India will keep killing cricket

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Friday, Dec 21, 2007
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Pitches in India will keep killing cricket

A good cricket pitch is one that has a consistent bounce and good carry throughout, writes Makarand Waingankar

No matter what one writes or say, pitches in India will continue to kill cricket. What entertainment-value did the India-Pakistan series have for the spectators? Indian batsmen of repute were worried of only Shoaib Akhtar.

Akhtar being unfit in the later part has been a stroke of luck for India, as they struggled when he was fit.

It is understandable for the hosts to want to keep the home advantage.

But to prepare a pitch that will be a graveyard for bowlers is just not cricket. In the 1982 home series against England, Indian won the first Test and, perhaps under instructions from the Indian team’s think-tank, got flat pitches prepared at all the remaining four venues. Consequently, India won the series 1-0.

A definition of a good cricket pitch is one that has a consistent bounce and good carry throughout. These factors are conducive to stroke-play and bowlers can get reasonable purchase.

But in India, we go for either flat or low-bounce slow pitches in a series. And if India wins the first Test, the pitches are made even slower.

Preparing a good pitch

Looking at the dismal record that India has abroad preparing good cricket pitches would be the right approach. But even in the Ranji Trophy matches, after the third round, pitches are horribly doctored.

The reason is that teams are either fighting for promotion or against relegation. And at that point all means, fair and foul, are deemed acceptable.

Last season, one of the champion teams tried to prepare pitches to suit their attack, but the whole thing boomeranged and the team was relegated to the plate division.

At the junior-level, the scene is improving with a small association like the Tripura Cricket Association producing very good pitches.

The difference

Though there are elite and plate divisions in Ranji and both groups of junior cricket (under-17 and 19), the difference is that junior elite and plate matches are played at a few centres in one zone, whereas the Ranji Trophy matches are played at home and away.

The BCCI, in order to curb the so-called home advantage, has decided to have the knock-out rounds of the Ranji Trophy played at neutral venues.

Though it is a good move, ideally they ought to be doing it from the third round of the league tournament.

It is high time the work of the members of the Pitches and Grounds Committee was monitored. What is the point of having them tour the zones if the associations continue to doctor pitches? The problem of doctoring the pitches would be solved if there was a penalty of one point for bad pitches.

Another solution could be to have the first-class matches of five-day duration. A pitch can be doctored for a four-day match, but to do it for a five-day match would expose the association.

The BCCI should also make it mandatory for all the associations to submit the list of the venues for the matches two months prior to the tournament.

It is only then that the members of the Pitches and Grounds Committee will have guidelines to both regulate and back them in supervising the associations’ work on the process of preparation of the pitches.

Maintenance machines

The BCCI has provided five highly sophisticated ground and pitch maintenance machines worth lakhs of rupees to each of the associations.

Only if trained personnel operate those machines guided by the BCCI Pitches and Grounds Committee members, Indian cricket by 2009 will have a totally different look.

It is the quality of the pitch that determines the standard of skills. Compromise on quality of the pitch and we will get to watch mediocre performances by even sterling players.

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