Cricket’s governing body must act against boards and curators who prepare unsporting pitches
Test matches remain the pinnacle of cricket. Despite the huge riches on offer in the Indian Premier league, whose player auction took place while India strove to win the test in Johannesburg, any player will tell you that it is playing in whites with the national crest on your cap that matters. And on that front, until now, India’s tour of South Africa has been a shocking indictment of India’s lack of preparation for this series. Fed a diet of a weak Sri lankan team over the past six months and playing nary a match ahead of this vital series to start a very tough year, India’s batsmen have been shown up as flat-track bullies. Until India’s Republic day, when a wonderful and brave performance by the batsmen in the second innings of the match, no matter what the end, result showed that India’s batsmen could play.
What made the performance even greater than it was, is that fact that pitch at the Wanderers is a disgrace. Some pitches, are disgraceful because they lead to boring matches. But others are disgraceful like this pitch because they are inherently dangerous. India’s batsmen put up a brave effort dealing with a pitch which was spitting up balls which often rose up like a King Cobra even off a good length. Even though this series has shown India’s batsmen in a poor light, it has likely also shown India’s and the Supreme Court appointed Committee of Administrators of the value of scheduling a few practice matches ahead of any series. That said, no amount of preparation could prepare anyone for such a pitch. It is urgent that the International Cricket Council acts against cricket boards and ground curators who prepare such a playing surface. Pitches have to be fair, where bat and ball can compete and it is the skill of individual players and the performance of the team that matters. A match should not be determined by a dangerous pitch where balls can injure and maim players.
For one, action that can be taken against such grounds is to bar them from hosting a test match for a whole season. Since regional cricket bodies depend heavily on Test match incomes, such a punishment which even Delhi deserved for a previous match against Sri lanka would be a fair one. While there are some inherent dangers when one plays a sport with a hard ball flying around at speed which has led to more fatalities in cricket than in Formula 1, such pitches increase the risk and must be avoided at all costs.