BCCI in need of lessons for preparing pitches

HOW TO prepare a sporting pitch? It will be prudent to include this chapter in future scheduling of cricket matches at home and the Board will do well to act fast in this direction. Sourav Ganguly's tirade against the ground staff at Mumbai and the resultant acrimony, quite needless though, in various quarters has left a bad taste.

Who should be incharge of pitch preparation? The Board (who else in the Indian system?), the staging association or the captain of the home team. The visiting captain can never have a say in such matters unless the International Cricket Council decides to standardise the quality of the playing surface, in which case at least he can protest at a sub-standard pitch. That will take time.

For the present, it is imperative that the Board realises the need to have lively track, and there are plenty of workers who can produce such pitches. There has been lot of meaningless talk on this subject for quite too long now and it is time to act.

Whatever, happened to the report submitted by soil experts who came from New Zealand a few years ago. Like all managers and coaches' reports to the Board, this one too must be gathering dust and in the absence of any accountability, no follow-up can be expected from a bunch of officials who lack the vision to improve the state of cricket in India. Appointment of a foreign coach and a foreign physiotherapist cannot be the panache for all the woes that afflict Indian cricket.

In the past too the captains had had a running battle with the curators. The late Sita Ram once prepared a lively green top at the Green Park and ended up inviting the wrath of the Indian captain. He spent the night scraping the grass. ``I cursed myself for being a curator because everyone blamed me for preparing a dead track'' he had said in disgust. Having known him, one could not have accepted that he could not prepare decent tracks but he was never allowed to.

In 1992-93, when the Englishmen visited India, a similar situation confronted the curator at the Chepauk Stadiumin Madras. He allowed some grass on the pitch and a furore erupted. The Indian team management chased the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA) Secretary, who, it was said, was alone authorised to give orders regarding preparation of the pitch. It took persuasion from all quarters for the concerned official to relent. ``Hypocrites'' he hissed even as he instructed the curator to please the Indian team management.

It is a well-known fact that the Indians thrive only in favourable conditions, preferably tracks which discourage bounce and pace. So, one was hardly surprised when Ganguly asked for a particular kind of surface at Mumbai. A ``turner'' as he said but ``doctored'' as one would like to understand it. The kind whose roots can be traced to the times of coach Ajit Wadekar and skipper Mohammad Azharuddin when visiting batsmen danced to the tune of the spin trio of Anil Kumble, Venkatapathy Raju and Rajesh Chauhan.

Why does the Indian captain demand a pitch where the ball should turn square from day one, and when it does not, should never rise above the knee level. The only reason that comes to mind is Indian batsmen have been spoilt by placid tracks in domestic cricket. It is also debatable if India can boast of good players of spin. Some technically accomplished have come a cropper against quality spinners, and some even bowled from behind the legs like novices.

Who is to be blamed for this state of affairs? Who else but the insensitive administrators and their continued refusal to understand the gravity of the situation is not only glaring but certainly ridiculous too, because of their misplaced priorities.

On the eve of the series, there was this self-glorified administrator, a miserable failure in his own duties though, who went on a icon-baiting spree. He has spared none. From Lala Amarnath to Kapil Dev to Sunil Gavaskar. The next in line could be Sachin Tendulkar. The greatest tragedy, this administrator would like us to believe is the fact that he could never play for India. The truth is he was nowhere close to doing so. A pity, having encouraged foreign coaches for the team and the national academy, he has not proposed foreign administrators to give the Board a professional look.

It is nice, wanting to play to your strength at home, but this policy does not give the team much chance overseas, losing to teams like Zimbabwe and New Zealand and being humiliated when playing in Australia and South Africa. One has heard lot of tales of some of our domestic heroes suddenly developing ``muscle pulls'' on sighting a green top abroad.

The job of preparing pitches is a professional job and should be left to men who are adept at it. There has been some talk in the Board of inviting a curator from abroad. Not a bad idea but let it be remembered there are competent men available at home too, provided the Board is willing to seriously consider working on this problem.

Indian cricket desperately needs direction and the Board president, Mr. A. C. Muthiah, can make a beginning by paying attention to this vexing issue, instead of wasting precious time and public money on silly meetings which hardly benefit the cause of the game.

Let the Board president order lively tracks, and not just turners, for the remaining period of domestic cricket, and create the right atmosphere for some quality product for the spectators to savour. By doing so, in the next season or two, one might succeed in avoiding confrontations between the national captain and the curators on matters containing pitches. Also, bred on hostile tracks, the players would not lose sleep on the eve of a match, worrying about the state of the pitch.

VIJAY LOKAPALLY

New Delhi

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