Spin Friendly Pitches—a case of short term gain but long term pain.

The Controversial Nagpur surface

The recently concluded test series between India and south Africa proved to be an exciting affair with 2 test matches out of the 4 ending inside 3 days. India won the series comfortably 3-0 and but for the Bengaluru rains it would have been a clean sweep. Interestingly south Africa had arrived in India not having lost an away test series for 9 years. Quite an incredible achievement especially in an era of test cricket where barring  brief periods of Aussie dominance all teams have been poor travelers being dominant at home but not able to adjust on foreign pitches.

Talking of pitches it was one of the most widely discussed issues of the Friendship series  the surfaces at Mohali and Nagpur in particular came in for sharp criticism. Even in press- conferences it was the hot topic among  journalists. The Nagpur pitch apparently received a ‘POOR’ remark from the match referee JEFF CROWE. I have often wondered who has the ultimate say in the preparation of the pitches. Is it the home cricket association or is it the pitch curator as it ideally should be. We have also had instances of Indian captains having tailor-made pitches according to their team strengths .we all know that India have been poor travellers in test cricket which puts all the more pressure on the captain and the team when they are playing at home. The pressure of the fans, media and cricket analysts has a huge bearing on the kind of pitches which are prepared especially if the team is under re-building phase as the current Indian team is. I have absolutely no doubt that the pitches which were prepared during the south Africa series  were according to the diktat of the team management. The Indian team on its part might argue that when they travel abroad they do not get pitches which suit their style of play and invariably favour fast bowlers then why this hoopla on spin friendly pitches and the criticism surrounding it?

The argument is well bought but there is just one demerit in the argument. When we aspire to play a team sport like cricket the ultimate goal of the Indian team should be to become a consistent test team playing well in all conditions across the globe. For how many years are we going to be satisfied with the tag of being ‘tigers at home and lambs abroad.’ It is true that during the last decade or so the Indian team has managed to win some memorable test matches in challenging conditions be it Joburg in 2006 or Kingston the same year or the memorable wins in PERTH 2008 and DURBAN in 2010. Incidentally all these wins were on seaming and bouncy pitches. Barring these famous wins the overall performances of the Indian teams in tests has been poor abroad. With 4-0 drubbing in Australia and England.

 Besides the spin friendly tracks also exposed some of the chinks in the armour of Indian batsmen and their ability to play spin dominantly. For long Indian batsmen have been known to be finest players of spin but since England tour of India in 2012, the Indian batsmen have been found wanting even against some of the mediocre spinners of visiting teams. It clearly shows that if Indian batsmen are finding it difficult to cope with spinners in India then it raises a question mark on their ability to play spin as well as the surfaces which are being prepared to achieve some easy home test victories. It is high time the Indian board and the team management woke up to the fact that only preparing turners in India is not going to serve any purpose in the long run. This short sighted-ness of the organizers is hurting India’s chances of becoming a truly champion test team in the long run. The score-line of 3-0 against the current world’s no 1 ranked test team sounds good to the ears of the Indian fans and the team as a whole but the pitches have been of poor quality whether we like it or not and it will prove to be detrimental to India’s chances of winning away test series and not just one off tests in couple of years. This Indian team has it in them to be the champion test team which should be the endeavor of every team which plays for India.

The present Indian team is in a re-building phase but still consists of quality batsmen like Kohli, Pujara Rahane and Vijay . they should be aiming to be the best in the world not just being flat track bullies who struggle in foreign conditions. The performances of Kohli in Australia was one of the best overseas batting in Australia for a long time. Instead of  just being satisfied with home wins they must try to push the envelope as a team and win tests in Australia, England and south Africa. As a matter of fact India has never won a test series in Australia and South Africa. this should be impetus enough for the talented Indian team to focus on improving their overseas records

Time for the ICC to do away with batsmen friendly rules.

The world cup 2015 ended just around a week ago and as expected Australia who were the favourites to win the world cup did it clinically when it mattered the most. It should not come as a surprise that Australia won the cup in their own backyard with a very professional performance throughout the tournament peaking at the right time. This world cup has highlighted a few critical issues  which the ICC needs to address . At present  there is a growing imbalance between the bat and the ball skewed hopelessly in favour of the bat. At present  it seems as if  batsmen ( read most Indian men ) seems to be bullying the poor ball ( read Indian women ). The Indian women it seems has nowhere to go but to tolerate the injustice done to her by the male counterpart. If this balance between the bat and the ball is continued to go the way it is  we could be headed for some extremely boring and unpopular cricketing contests in the near future.

 Everyone thought that since the Australian grounds were quite big with long boundaries and the scores in the world cup would be around 250-300 at best. However scores of 300 plus and even 400 were being scored with ridiculous ease. The batsmen were making a mockery of the hapless bowlers.  The bats have become  meatier and thicker across the edge. There used to be a sweet spot on the bats during the 1990’s but now the whole of the bat has become a sweet bat with balls coming off edges also going for sixes. Initially it seems very exciting for the viewers  but after a while it becomes ridiculously one sided and boring in favour of the batsmen. One of the most interesting games of the tournament was funnily a low scoring affair between Trans- Tasman rivals Australia- New Zealand. 19 wickets fell in the match and the combined totals of the teams barely crossed 300. The length of the bat is restricted but  there is no restriction on the thickness of the  edge of the bat. Surely the administrators need to place some guidelines on the specifications of the edges of the bat.

It is not just the bats which are an area of concern but also  the fielding restrictions which have  created huge problems for the  fielding captains and the bowlers. The bowlers find it almost impossible to restrict the rampaging batsmen especially in the last 15 overs. In the 2^nd batting powerplay   with just 3 fielders outside the inner circle, bowlers  have no other option but  to take wickets to exert some kind of pressure on the batsmen. Even in the last 10 overs   during this world cup teams have managed to score almost  at a run rate of 12 runs per over  adding to the woes of the fielding captains.  The ICC needs to revisit the theory of 5 fielders in the circle at all times as the fielding captains tend to captain according to the regulations not according to their own imagination. When the ICC introduced 2 new balls at each end they must have thought it would help the fast bowlers swing the ball for longer durations but this move also seems to have  backfired  simply because of the fact that there are very few genuine  swing bowlers left in the game who can exploit the 2 new balls  and the fact that flat batting wickets all over the world have only made it easier for the batsmen to score easily at both ends. With 2 new balls at each end the art of reverse swing which formed an important arsenal for the fast bowlers has become redundant.  When there was just the one ball being used, the bowlers could exert some control on the batsmen with late reverse swing along with the fact that the  old ball made it harder for the batsmen to score due to lack of pace from the wickets. Due  to the non existence of reverse swing, the bowlers have forgotten to bowl deadly and fast yorkers which made the ODI’s exciting in the 90’s. The batsmen also had to manipulate the ball in the gaps  against the spinners who  turned the ball making it for interesting viewing. 

 The list of suggestions to make the game  more evenly contested is endless. Due to the commercial interests the pitch curators also prepare batting friendly wickets all over the world to ensure scores of more than 300  which are being achieved with ridiculous ease.  I am not sure the spectators tend to enjoy all 300 plus games with regularity as they tend to get bored over a period of time.  The  curators need to understand  the fact that they can prepare flat batsmen friendly pitches for the T-20 format  but for the ODI’s and tests they need to give something to the bowlers to make it a more interesting contest.  The  length of boundaries at some of the ground in India and New Zealand  are just laughable. We need to go to the  70’s and 80’s era where the boundary ropes / boards were not brought inside their full capacity.  The boundaries now a days are so short on some of these grounds that even top edges of the batsmen tend to go for sixes. There are some very senior cricketers involved in the working of the ICC  which makes it even more astonishing. Surely having played the game at the  highest level and having seen the game from the sidelines must make them realize that  there might come a time when the bowlers might revolt against the ICC for the unfair treatment meted out to them by the organisers. That day would be one of the saddest this game might witness and we should hope  that such a situation never arises and the ICC opens its eyes and stops making cosmetic and myopic changes. The fraternity of spinners and fast bowlers is an important and exciting one and needs to be safeguarded.