Pitches have always been the center of discussion in cricket. Not many sports around the world rely so heavily on the turf they are played on. Cricket is unique in the sense that the whole game plan is centered around the pitch that the game is being played on. The situation does get complicated for both the players and the spectators. People associated with the game have different tastes. Some believe the unpredictability associated with the game is good and some believe it isn’t. Some believe commercials are important whereas others believe the culture is important.
There has never been any loud talk regarding standardization of pitches. We see all sorts of anomalies happening due to lack of this standardization. There have been experimental studies conducted by England and Wales’s cricket board and they conducted this way back in 2000. Since then the quality of pitches generally has improved. However, some of the other boards do not think that there is a need to involve science in these matters and they simply rely on the verdict of their groundsmen.
Consider India for instance. The recent series between India and Australia is a 7 match ODI series. If you look at the scorelines of the first two matches, it is round about the 320 mark. However, for the next two, the scores dramatically drop to around the 230 mark. The same team that put 354 runs on the board one day could not chase a total of 250 against a rather weakened bowling attack as compared to the one that they scored 354 against.
The 354 runs innings is, nevertheless, a commercial success with the number of boundaries being hit. However, for the viewer in the stands, and also the fans watching on television, a low scoring game isn’t always as exciting as the high scoring one. So there is definitely lack of standardization. It’s true if some people say that the better player has to perform on both the pitches – agreed. But what if the pitch helps the weaker side? Haven’t we seen cases where a toss simply changes the whole situation of the game? Just because the side gaining advantage from the pitch conditions. A cricket game should be judged on a player’s ability and the team’s tactics. External factors like the pitch condition should ideally have a minimal effect.
There is also a case of expectations management. Pakistan lost to Ireland and India lost to Bangladesh in the 2007 world cup in the first round. The pitches for both these matches weren’t what the players expected. Everyone knows Pakistan and India are a far better team as compared to Ireland and Bangladesh. Not taking anything away from Ireland and Bangladesh, however, the pitch and the toss had crucial effects on both these games. So there shouldn’t be a 360 degree difference in what the players are expecting and what the pitch actually turns out to be. Sometimes pitches does get into unpredictable proportions. All the commentators and analysts are proved wrong most of the time regarding the nature of pitches. Teams have lost 5 days matches due to misreading the pitch.
Reading the pitch is an art, not a science and it doesn’t come to everyone by default. This is what makes it a bit different from other sports. And sometimes this difference hurts. If a team is playing on a green pitch, they are generally expecting the ball to bounce and come quickly on to the bat. However there are all sorts of reasons that this might not actually happen. So why should there be so much confusion?
The pitches play so much of a role that recently there have been talks of changing the format of cricket itself, breaking the 2 innings in an ODI to 4, to minimize the effect of the pitch and the toss. This must be a one of a kind example since no other sports would attempt to change its basic rules just to adjust to the playing conditions. And apparently preparing a good track shouldn’t be such a difficult job in the modern era. Its just that the cricket boards and the organizers need to work on different formulas and then stick to the one that gives them a good cricket pitch.
