Last week, there had been a lot of discussion about test wickets around the world and the “lost” art of preparing wickets. These are days when the popularity of test cricket, for that matter even One-day cricket, is eroding at the hands of T20, and the spectator counts are dwindling, even in cricket crazy India, except for some ardent test venues like Chennai.
Well I for one, am not against a sporting wicket for test cricket, which would produce results and extend to the full five days, should the weather permit. But I am certainly against the pitches losing the “home flavor”.
In the pre-1980’s test cricket was played on “uncovered” pitches. True to its literal meaning, no covers were used to protect the pitch from the weather conditions; hence the pitches were soaked in rain and baked in sun. Hence, naturally it favored the bowlers, where the ball off the pitch caused nightmares to batsmen and the ‘keeper alike. Hence, sticky wickets (wet wickets) and green wickets (full of grass) were quite common.
But once the law of covering a pitch was introduced, the wickets behaved akin to the nature of the soil and the prevailing climatic conditions. But now, due to “entertainment quotient of cricket” and changing climatic conditions around the world, the pitches are slowing down. Even the WACA (Perth), the nightmare for batsmen, has lost its bite considerably. This has made cricket a batsman’s game, rather than a game of balance between bat and ball.
The ideal test wicket according to experts is: Assist seamers for session and a half, ease out in the next two days and take turn in days 4 (later part) and 5. While this seems “ideal”, the question of local flavor to the pitches and home advantage disappears, making test cricket all the more uninteresting.
The answer needs to be found out quickly if we want test cricket to survive and thrive in these days of T20. Nothing can be more exhilarating, than seeing cricket when there is equality between bat and ball, 100 odd for 3 at lunch, 250-300 odd at the end of the day.
A sense of awe transpires through us, not only when Sachin plays a back-foot cover drive, but also when a in-swinging Yorker clips the bottom of leg stump, when a ball jumping from good-length clipping batsman’s gloves and falling just short of the 1st slip, we all have our heart on mouth, don’t we?
The following are some useful links for further reading on pitch preparation and how the pitches around the world play
Wikipedia
Cricinfo
This now leads to another topic spinners vs seamers. Because of the fact that pitches in sub-continent assist spinners while those in the rest of the world aid (to an extent) seamers.To essentially maintain the local flavor, the pitches should continue to do so, with an “AND” operator of being “sporty”. While rank (bad) turners are considered not to be sporty, the same is not being said about “green tops”. So this leads to another debate “turning pitches” vs “green tops”.
Well, this has a scope for a separate post, where we can in detail discuss about them!!
The current crop of youngsters(those who are in school), need to be taught the importance of test cricket, they should not be carried away by the glitz and glamour of 20-20. Otherwise, the game of cricket will be nothing more than a business venture.
Well I for one, am not against a sporting wicket for test cricket, which would produce results and extend to the full five days, should the weather permit. But I am certainly against the pitches losing the “home flavor”.
In the pre-1980’s test cricket was played on “uncovered” pitches. True to its literal meaning, no covers were used to protect the pitch from the weather conditions; hence the pitches were soaked in rain and baked in sun. Hence, naturally it favored the bowlers, where the ball off the pitch caused nightmares to batsmen and the ‘keeper alike. Hence, sticky wickets (wet wickets) and green wickets (full of grass) were quite common.
But once the law of covering a pitch was introduced, the wickets behaved akin to the nature of the soil and the prevailing climatic conditions. But now, due to “entertainment quotient of cricket” and changing climatic conditions around the world, the pitches are slowing down. Even the WACA (Perth), the nightmare for batsmen, has lost its bite considerably. This has made cricket a batsman’s game, rather than a game of balance between bat and ball.
The ideal test wicket according to experts is: Assist seamers for session and a half, ease out in the next two days and take turn in days 4 (later part) and 5. While this seems “ideal”, the question of local flavor to the pitches and home advantage disappears, making test cricket all the more uninteresting.
The answer needs to be found out quickly if we want test cricket to survive and thrive in these days of T20. Nothing can be more exhilarating, than seeing cricket when there is equality between bat and ball, 100 odd for 3 at lunch, 250-300 odd at the end of the day.
A sense of awe transpires through us, not only when Sachin plays a back-foot cover drive, but also when a in-swinging Yorker clips the bottom of leg stump, when a ball jumping from good-length clipping batsman’s gloves and falling just short of the 1st slip, we all have our heart on mouth, don’t we?
The following are some useful links for further reading on pitch preparation and how the pitches around the world play
Wikipedia
Cricinfo
This now leads to another topic spinners vs seamers. Because of the fact that pitches in sub-continent assist spinners while those in the rest of the world aid (to an extent) seamers.To essentially maintain the local flavor, the pitches should continue to do so, with an “AND” operator of being “sporty”. While rank (bad) turners are considered not to be sporty, the same is not being said about “green tops”. So this leads to another debate “turning pitches” vs “green tops”.
Well, this has a scope for a separate post, where we can in detail discuss about them!!
The current crop of youngsters(those who are in school), need to be taught the importance of test cricket, they should not be carried away by the glitz and glamour of 20-20. Otherwise, the game of cricket will be nothing more than a business venture.
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