The pitch at the R. Premadasa Stadium, triggered a debate here on Saturday.
The International Cricket Council CEO Dave Richardson termed the wicket for the ICC World Twenty20 semifinal between Sri Lanka and Pakistan as ‘not ideal.’
“The pitch used in the first semifinal wasn’t an ideal wicket for T20 as there was too much assistance to spinners. There was advantage for both teams and the Sri Lankan spinners took better advantage of the situation.
“Having said that, I spoke to the curator and he said the wicket was too dry.
“You have to accept that in this hot climate, preparing a wicket is incredibly difficult,” Richardson said.
Richardson’s comment drew a sharp retort from the host skipper Mahela Jayawardene.
“The ICC controls the wickets. They (ICC) schedule the matches on each strip. I don’t know what Richardson is talking about.
“Pakistan has one of the three best spinners in world cricket in (Shahid) Afridi, (Saeed) Ajmal and (Mohammad) Hafeez. When they have that kind of quality spinners why would you want to prepare a wicket to suit them?
“I had two spinners in my team — Rangana (Herath) and Ajantha (Mendis). It was an even contest,” said the Sri Lankan captain.
Keywords: 2012 world Twenty20, ICC
While Srilanka had an obvious benefit playing on their home ground,
Pakistani team also put up a decent show and losing by 16 runs is not
that bad of a defeat that they'd cry over it. A team that has managed to
reach the SEMIs in all T20 tournaments has no reason to cry and neither
do its supporters!
oh ! come on Wasim. At least in SriLanka a tourney of world repute is conducted and players come and play withour fear for life. Kindly stop crying especially after the defeat and accept it openly.Three cheers to SriLanka for being a wonderful host.
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