The third test match between India & South Africa got over 5 days ago, two days before the scheduled close. But the match related talk is far from over, thanks to the under prepared Green Park pitch, which has evoked a lot of criticism from experts of the game. This is not the first time that such a thing is happening in India, the same happened when Australia last toured India and played the last test match at an under prepared Wankhede pitch in Mumbai.
India, after losing the second test match in Ahmedabad inside 3 days and being the home team, were under a lot of pressure to win the third test and level the series. So, there can be a willingness on the part of curators to prepare a pitch favoring the home side. But certainly, as per ICC regulations, it doesn’t allow home country’s team management to ask the pitch curators to prepare the pitch according to the needs of the home team. The onus of preparing a pitch totally lies on the curators of the pitch, who are hired by the cricket board of that country. They can prepare whatever they feel is the best surface for playing cricket. It was quite obvious that an under prepared pitch will help the Indian more than their counterparts, because of the spin attack that India possesses. However, fast bowlers were also equally effective and all the batsmen had a terrible time fighting for survival on that pitch. The match was poised at stumps on second day. The decisive last wicket partnership happened on the third day and from there on, South Africa was doing the chasing. So, rather than cursing the pitch, the players should blame themselves for the defeat.
There has been no complaining regarding the pitch from either the South African side or the Indian side. The whole issue has taken an official status and being considered by ICC, because of the Match referee’s (Roshan Mahanama) letter to ICC’s pitch investigation committee complaining about the substandard Green Park pitch. If ICC finds the curators guilty and regards the incident as unfair play, then Kanpur might get banned from hosting international matches in the near future. But, most of the current cricketers feel that there is nothing wrong with the curators preparing pitch favoring the home team, the home advantage has to be there. Someone playing international cricket should be able to adjust to all kind of wickets and none can expect to get a batting paradise all the time. So far, only 1 test match featuring West Indies and England in Port of Spain has been abandoned because of the quality of the pitch and concerns over players getting injured playing on that pitch. Right now, the Kanpur under prepared pitch case is being investigated by the ICC and the future of Green Park is awaited.
India, after losing the second test match in Ahmedabad inside 3 days and being the home team, were under a lot of pressure to win the third test and level the series. So, there can be a willingness on the part of curators to prepare a pitch favoring the home side. But certainly, as per ICC regulations, it doesn’t allow home country’s team management to ask the pitch curators to prepare the pitch according to the needs of the home team. The onus of preparing a pitch totally lies on the curators of the pitch, who are hired by the cricket board of that country. They can prepare whatever they feel is the best surface for playing cricket. It was quite obvious that an under prepared pitch will help the Indian more than their counterparts, because of the spin attack that India possesses. However, fast bowlers were also equally effective and all the batsmen had a terrible time fighting for survival on that pitch. The match was poised at stumps on second day. The decisive last wicket partnership happened on the third day and from there on, South Africa was doing the chasing. So, rather than cursing the pitch, the players should blame themselves for the defeat.
There has been no complaining regarding the pitch from either the South African side or the Indian side. The whole issue has taken an official status and being considered by ICC, because of the Match referee’s (Roshan Mahanama) letter to ICC’s pitch investigation committee complaining about the substandard Green Park pitch. If ICC finds the curators guilty and regards the incident as unfair play, then Kanpur might get banned from hosting international matches in the near future. But, most of the current cricketers feel that there is nothing wrong with the curators preparing pitch favoring the home team, the home advantage has to be there. Someone playing international cricket should be able to adjust to all kind of wickets and none can expect to get a batting paradise all the time. So far, only 1 test match featuring West Indies and England in Port of Spain has been abandoned because of the quality of the pitch and concerns over players getting injured playing on that pitch. Right now, the Kanpur under prepared pitch case is being investigated by the ICC and the future of Green Park is awaited.
1 comment:
What's the matter of controversy here. It the pitch wasn't prepared fully then both teams could have taken it's benifit. I think this should be a matter of negligence.
Anyways that's not your concern, i must mention it's another nice post.
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