Pitch committee wants to have the cake and eat it too
Discussion on pitches in this country among cricket fans is almost as vehement these days as matters regarding team selection
Partab Ramchand
16-Feb-2000
Discussion on pitches in this country among cricket fans is almost as
vehement these days as matters regarding team selection. It was never
like this but the debacle in Australia has changed
priorities. Suddenly everyone is talking like an expert about fast
wickets, turning tracks, bouncy pitches and so on. Suddenly the Board
of Control for Cricket in India is aware of the importance of the
surface on which the games are played in this country and the
officials are all convinced that there has to be drastic changes in
the thinking of preparation of wickets. That is, if they are serious
about the team not being subjected to humiliation and ridicule on
foreign soil again.
The deliberations at the pitches and ground committee meetings
received lukewarm response in the past. However, with there being so
much talk of late about the urgent need to change the nature of
wickets in the country, it is but natural that whenever the committee
meets these days, the deliberations attract considerable
attention. And utmost importance was given to the meeting of the
committee which had its sitting at Chennai on Wednesday.
The committee wants to have the cake and eat it too. It is keen to
have ``sporting wickets'' as committee chairman K Srikkanth kept
emphasizing while briefing reporters at the end of the meeting but
would not want India to surrender the home advantage. There is a very
thin line here but the committee thinks it is possible to skate along
it.
The immediate objective is to prepare sporting tracks for the games
against South Africa. The first test of how serious the authorities
are about changing the wickets for the better will be seen at Mumbai
and Bangalore, the venues for the two Tests against South
Africa. Srikkanth was emphatic that the committee had recommended that
there should not be any more `bad' or `underprepared' wickets where
the ball would turn from the first day. In his view, sporting tracks
are those that would encourage seam bowlers over the first two days
and then gradually aid spin from the third day. ``It is imperative
that the matches should last five days and not end in 3-1/2 days''
said the former Indian captain.
But Srikkanth emphasized that the committee could only recommend the
changes. Ultimately it was left to each association to effect the
changes. But he struck an optimistic note when he said the authorities
have ``promised to support us.'' He also maintained that it was
possible for every centre to prepare sporting tracks.
Srikkanth admitted he was aware that in some cases, the changes could
not be made overnight. ``The preparation of such wickets should be
done in a phased manner and over a long term period.'' He said it was
encouraging to note that even Indian captain Sachin Tendulkar had said
that he was not for bad tracks or those with an uneven bounce.
On domestic cricket, however he advocated a change in the nature of
wickets straightaway. ``Certainly there should not be any more wickets
like the tracks we saw at Ahmedabad for the Challenger Trophy. I have
noticed from media reports that Kapil Dev has come out against such
wickets which are heavily loaded in favour of the batsmen.'' He
pointed out that there was still so much domestic cricket in the
season with many Ranji Trophy Super League and knock out games to be
played.
What if by preparing sporting tracks, the Indians surrender the
advantage and lose the games to South Africa. Would there be any
rethinking on changing the nature of the wickets? Srikkanth played
safe, very much unlike the manner in which he played the game. ``We
shall cross that bridge when we come to it.''