In my opinion, it’s always a great shame in any sport when all the talk is about the surrounding conditions rather than the actual game itself. Unfortunately in the build up to the second test match between India and Australia, this is very much the case as all the talk concerns the quality of the pitch at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in India as well as the history of poor cricketing conditions in India as a whole.
All the talk about the pitch conditions kicked off when it was revealed that in the 1st test between the two nations ICC Match Referee, Chris Broad had labelled the pitch as “poor”. Therefore what will the conditions for the second test be like? Although of course we can’t say for sure until the day of the test there are some suspicions and real doubters. To be fair, why wouldn’t everyone doubt the conditions when this might just be the next instalment in a long list of pitch issues in India.
India’s reputation for sub par pitches goes back to 2008. Following India slaughtering South Africa by 8 wickets within only 3 days the ICC went onto warn the BCCI about the quality of their pitches saying that the decreasing quality of pitches for international matches was concerning. However, this is nothing compared to what happened in 2009 during an ODI between India and Sri Lanka in Delhi. In this instance, the match was in fact abandoned. Match officials decided that the pitch was simply unplayable and a danger to players. Following this appalling incident the venue, the Feroz Shah Kotla was banned from hosting international cricket – surely an embarrassing if a not humiliating piece of madness for Indian cricket. But as I’m sure you’ve guessed there’s still more, as recently as 2015 the cricket pitch in Nagpur was rated poor by the ICC. It’s if anything a disgrace for Indian cricket that they’ve been receiving fairly regular complaints for almost the last 10 years and this is still an ongoing problem for them. Surely there comes a point where either they sort their act out or the ICC makes investigations into whether this is India trying to gain and unfair advantage. In all grass sports, it can be expected that the pitch will be cared for in a way that is favorable to the home side but there comes a point when this is out of order. Primarily the field needs to be safe for players but history has proven that India isn’t always able to provide this, which for the standard of the sport that international cricket is.
So it’s no secret that the pitches aren’t up to scratch, that’s easy to see. But where the story becomes more blurry is when discussing potential reasons for this. If it was simply a lack of care or attention then this although still pretty bad would be fairly easy to understand. But the issue arises when there are rumors being thrown around of officials in charge of preparing the pitch in Pune stating the Indian team management have been attempting to interfere. According to some sources, these officials have even been quoted saying that preparations have been “hijacked” by the Indian management. Therefore perhaps this is a problem rooted much deeper than simply being poor preparation.
More than anything this is just a shame for Indian cricket. A good side can win in any conditions and the Indian side themselves have said that they are capable of winning in any conditions. So why does it appear that games are being played with the pitches? Fair enough it’s reasonable to prepare a pitch to suit your side but fundamentally player safety must come first over anything. Simply embarrassing for Indian cricket.
