When hosting an international cricket event, it is expected that the host country will prepare the pitches according to the strengths of its own players, batsmen as well as bowlers. However now the pitch at Cardiff which will host the first test of the upcoming Ashes series between England and Australia has to field accusations of being a “doctored pitch” simply because it is seen to have excessive turn and recent match between Glamorgan and Essex was spin dominated.

As reported in the cricket news, a Pitch Panel appointed by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) comprising Mike Denness and Tony Pigott interviewed the umpires, captains and coaches, and opined that the wicket used for the Friends Provident match on May 12 "demonstrated excessive turn and should therefore be rated 'poor'."

The British do of course take pride in their policy of fair play and applying the same token to their cricket, but to label a pitch as “poor” simply because of excessive turn may be a tad much. It is true that since the retirement of Warne and Stuart MacGill, Australia have struggled to find a Test-class spinner, while England have hit upon two in Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar, however this the sort of thing that every host team hopes to be able to take advantage of.

Tim Nielsen, the Australian coach himself does not think that preparing a turning pitch amounts to doctoring. "Whenever you go to someone else's country you wait and see what they prepare. Generally, England are renowned for making good, fair cricket wickets, but if they feel two spinners in the way to go for them, then I'm sure they'll have a long think about what kind of wickets they put up. That's fine. We expect hard and bouncy wickets when we go to Perth and Brisbane, so there is no difference," he was quoted in the cricket news as having said.

Earlier this venue had been in the cricket news for England's final ODI against South Africa in September 2008, which was abandoned after three overs because of poor drainage. And now cricket controversy has returned to haunt the Cardiff venue because many in international cricket are questioning the wisdom of scheduling a test match at Cardiff at all over other venues such as Old Trafford and Trent Bridge. Add to this the fact that this venue has a new grounds-man, a new outfield and new drainage and critics are expressing their certainty that all that can go wrong for this test will go wrong.

Comments

Add New RSS

3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."

Newer news items:

Older news items: