The quality of pitches and the standard of umpiring in domestic cricket came in for critical assessment at the annual Board of Control for Cricket in India Conclave of Captain and Coaches held here on Sunday. Various suggestions were received by the board’s technical committee, headed by Test great Anil Kumble, with the focus being on improving the key areas that concern the players.
“The captains and coaches raised a couple of key issues, including the scheduling of matches, quality of balls and various formats. It was a very useful conclave overall,” said Kumble.
Former Test spinners Harbhajan Singh and Sunil Joshi appealed to the board to pay attention to the pitches provided for first-class matches. Both pointed out the “lack of bounce” as the reason for the decline of finger-spinners in the country. A suggestion was made to involve a player of stature from each State to monitor the preparation of pitches. Joshi also objected to “doctored” pitches, with his team having suffered on this account on a couple of occasions.
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Joshi, coach of Jammu and Kashmir, observed that a spinners academy be launched by the board to encourage youngsters to pick the nuances of slow bowling from former players of repute.
A majority of the gathering also brought to the notice the “poor” standard of umpiring. As mentioned by Mumbai coach Pravin Amre at the end of the Ranji Trophy semifinal against Karnataka, there was a demand for use of technology in more decisions. Currently, only line decisions are referred to the third umpire.
There was concern at the quality of balls used in the season. Constant change of balls had been an irritant, with bowlers from most teams complaining. The scheduling of Ranji matches was also discussed. It was felt that the teams in North Zone play their home matches first and then travel for the remaining encounters in order to counter the inclement weather that disrupts the schedule during peak winter.
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Among the suggestions, Himachal Pradesh coach Abhay Sharma’s plea to look at the possibility of having 95 overs a day was received warmly. Making the Duleep Trophy and Deodhar Trophy “more relevant” and staging a T20 tournament, with teams divided into four groups, before IPL auctions were among other observations.
Kumble was also requested to help the bowlers by giving a thought to having five fielders outside the circle for the last 10 overs of a one-day match.
Last season, the players had to mask the logos on the helmets during domestic tournaments. A request was made to the board to allow the players to display their State association logos on the helmet.
Among those conspicuous by their absence were Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. While UP coach Venkatesh Prasad claimed he had no information of the meeting, Delhi coach Vijay Dahiya said he had a pressing personal commitment. The suggestions will be discussed in the technical committee meeting in Kolkata this month.