Pitch Perfect (what is this?)
Pune Pitch sourced from @GerardWhateley

Pitch Perfect (what is this?)

There has been a lot of debate about the state of the Pitch in Pune. Even though Australia won, many bemoaned being served up such a dry pitch with the ball turning on Day 1.

Some comments have ranged from the ICC mandating standardised pitches to the visiting team being offered first choice to bat or bowl to try and even out the 'home advantage'.

If you have a look at the varying pitches around the World you can't help but marvel at why Cricket is such a wonderful game and how it can be played in almost any region of the world.

The pitches below are just here in Australia, showing how diverse they really are from extreme dry and subsequent cracking to a very green seamer!

Now compare our Pitches to what any team can reasonably expect when visiting South Africa to New Zealand to India noting these are all Day 1 Pitches.

For me, the best couple of Tests I have seen were the Adelaide Oval Pink Ball Test (Aus v NZ) with a result within 3 days and the recently completed Test in Pune again within 3 days. None of these Tests went anywhere close to the 5 days, but that didn't make it any less of a contest or less enjoyable.

I'm not convinced it's physically possible to standardise Pitches with Grass Cover, Moisture, Cracking as there are far too many variables to make this even worth attempting. A choice of batting or bowling to the visiting team may be worth considering but I'm not sure the 'system' is really that broken that it demands it.

I like the fact we play on such a wide array of pitches and whilst some may certainly favour the home team due to the Future Tours Program surely this evens itself out over the long run. The teams have so many high performance analysts and pre Tour preparation (CA High Performance Centre in Brisbane) where they have imported overseas clay to replicate sub continent conditions to playing in Dubai before going on to India that visiting teams have never been better prepared than before.

What do you think?

David Ember

Grounds & Gardens Manager at St Mary's University, Twickenham

8 年

If you produced standardised pitches you will produce standardised cricket. Every team will have the same make up, cricketers will become robots. Great teams can win on any given surface - Aussies of the 90's West Indies of the 70's early 80's is an example.

Chat Ekanayaka

Environmental Health Officer

8 年

Every national team try to get home advantage for the rest cricket. But there should have some standardise moisture and bulk density management/ monitoring system Otherwise the dusty pitch damage the nature of test cricket. According to my knowledge. Most of the subcontinent wicket Profils not top dress properly. Because of that it create layers. That will reduce the even water distribution horizontally and vertically on the square. The above article is very interesting.

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