The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Need for sporting pitches

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Apr 22, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Sport

Sport - Cricket

Need for sporting pitches

Special Correspondent

Jaipur: Several outstanding performances by the players will linger after the DLF-IPL concludes. Batsmen like Brendon McCullum and Michael Hussey have sparkled while Glen McGrath and Shaun Pollock have provided proof that Twenty20 can extend their careers.

In the fielding department, Viraat Kohli, Abhishek Nayar and P. Amarnath have come up with brilliant catches.

The first three days of the IPL though has not been without an ‘eyesore’. The laser fireworks show minutes before the start of the Mumbai Indians vs. Royal Challengers match scattered debris on the ground. It was not until the players and umpires had taken their positions that the fragments were removed. The faux pas prevented a prompt 8 p.m. start.

Substandard surface

Then, there was the Eden Gardens pitch. The media has been very impartial, is justified in finding fault with the pitch and rapping the authorities for preparing a substandard surface for the kind of competition that requires a sporting wicket.

While the ground staff at Bangalore, Mohali, Delhi, Mumbai and Jaipur need to be applauded, the people at Kolkata need to be pulled up.

The Deccan Chargers skipper, V.V.S. Laxman, was scathing saying that the pitch was not good for any form of cricket. Obviously the ground staff would be under pressure to maintain the quality of the pitch right through the 44-day event. All IPL match centres though are ready with three strips on the centre plot.

“It does not require more than seven days to prepare a good quality pitch,” said Kishore Pradhan, member of the BCCI’s Pitch & Grounds Committee and expressed his happiness at Taposh Chatterjee’s work here.

In Mumbai, the next five matches would be played at the D.Y. Patil International stadium and the services of Peter Muzzle (consultant, Cricket South Africa) and Adrian Carter (head ground in charge, St. George’s Park, Port Elizabeth) have been commissioned in order to maintain the quality of the wicket for five matches.

The IPL’s governing council and Lalit Modi, Chairman and Commissioner, must intervene and ensure that the mess caused by the Eden Gardens pitch is not repeated.

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

Sport