The ground reality

There is no technical reason why Indian cricket pitches shouldn't be the best in the world. India is closely related geologically to Australia and South Africa. All three countries have superb soils and magnificent climates for producing top quality cricket pitches.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India president Jagmohan Dalmyia has stated that Indian cricket pitches need to become more "sporting".  Different people will have different interpretations of what is meant by "sporting". New Zealand Cricket has said that good pitches should be a fair contest between the bat and ball. Pitches should give an opportunity for a result even if sporting declarations are necessary. Pitches should not give too much assistance to bowlers, or be so flat that bowlers can't get batsmen out. Batsmen should be able to play a range of strokes and score at a reasonable rate. Similar definitions have been given in other countries.

Indian pitches have a reputation for being low and slow. Some pitches become too flat and difficult to get a result on. Many Indian pitches take spin early in a match. Indian pitches actually compare very well with other countries in terms of scoring rate for one-day cricket. In fact, one study that will be published later this year places India and Pakistan at the top, well ahead of Australia and most other countries.

Some people question whether making more "sporting" pitches in India will mean that pitches throughout the world will be all the same.  They fear that spin bowling will disappear from the game in favour of fast bowling.

In answering this question we need to consider the powerful forces that are sweeping through sport worldwide, and Indian cricket in particular. I am talking about television and sponsorship. The people that pay extremely large sums of money for television rights and sponsorship want to know that the product (cricket) is attractive to the public. They measure this by TV programme ratings. If the cricket is fast and exciting with runs scored and a close result that keeps people glued to the TV, then more people will watch and presumably buy the sponsors product.

In most parts of the world cricket has to compete with other sports and events for public interest. The sport simply cannot afford to produce pitches that result in slow, boring, cricket with no prospect of a result. In most countries players rate pitches as "good" or "excellent" quality where the pitch has fast pace. In other words, the ball "comes on to the bat" and players are able to time powerful strokes off most deliveries. Slow paced pitches make for slow, low scoring cricket.

In most countries pitches need to rate at least "medium" for pace to be acceptable. "Fast" pace is considered desirable. The cricket ball should bounce a consistent height off the pitch and never keep low. Fast pace is often related to high bounce height. Good bounce gives an opportunity for both fast and slow bowlers to take wickets. Pitches with reasonable pace punish bowlers that bowl at medium or slow pace. They punish spinners that can't turn the ball on pitches without much grip. These are the playing conditions that are being aimed for in most countries. In other words, only the best fast bowlers and top spin bowlers will prosper in the modern game on fast bouncy pitches.

Spin bowling is disadvantaged by the pitch management needed to produce fast bouncy pitches, although top class spin bowlers, like Shane Warne and Muthiah Muralitharan, can prosper on hard, bouncy surfaces.

New Zealand Cricket has recognised that it is necessary to actively encourage spin bowling through pitch preparation. They have asked curators to prepare pitches where spin bowling is favoured later in the game. It is not easy to make pitches prepared for fast pace, that take spin later in a match. There is still work to be done in developing the best practices to encourage spin on fast pitches. Soil selection and pitch preparation practices both play a part.

A second important consideration when discussing sporting pitches is what type of pitches in India will help the Indian team be more competitive overseas. A constant diet of slow, turning pitches will not be good for nurturing the fast bowlers and batsmen that can handle fast pitches overseas. They will be needed if the Indian team is to prosper on the faster pitches aborad. I suggest that this is an important reason for India to develop more faster pitches at the expense of some of the character and diversity of the Indian pitches.

The conflict between quality and quantity.

It is not easy to suddenly prepare faster pitches. In most cases it will mean changing the cricket block soil and learning new ways to prepare the pitches. It is very difficult to routinely prepare fast pitches of high quality without a good knowledge of the theory of pitch preparation. Providing training for curators is strongly recommended.

Unfortunately, the heavy cricket use of many stadiums will make it difficult to prepare fast pitches due to a lack of preparation time. There needs to be less cricket played at the main stadiums where the best quality soils are used so there is time for proper preparation. It would be a mistake to simply install a good quality soil and still continue with a heavy use programme. The good soil could easily perform poorer than the less desirable cricket soil. In fact, the less desirable soils are easily managed and are well suited to heavy cricket use, even though the their performance potential is lower.

The conflict between quality and quantity is a serious issue because lower grade cricketers do not have much opportunity to play on well-prepared grass pitches apart from when they play in the main stadiums. State cricket associations need to pay attention to providing grass cricket blocks outside the main stadiums, as some are doing already.

One commendable policy in India is that no cricket will be played on a ground for a time leading up to an international match. This is a policy that other countries could adopt. Over scheduling of cricket matches is a problem worldwide.

Indian cricket stadiums

One can't fail to be impressed by the well constructed playing surfaces of the cricket stadiums of India. All of the ten stadiums I visited were a perfect oval shape with a uniform slope to the boundary. Great efforts had been made to create a smooth outfield surface that is nicely groomed with quality mowing equipment. All of the grounds had excellent sight screens and rollers.

Television and one-day cricket are demanding that players field aggressively by sliding across the outfield. Outfields need to be exceptionally smooth and well irrigated with a dense grass cover so aggressive fielding can be done safely. Some Indian outfields are too hard and bumpy for this style of fielding. Stadiums need to install expensive irrigation systems to maintain a smooth soft surface. The Indian team will compete better overseas when they play on these surfaces all the time at home.

Outfield presentation standards are influenced by television, but better outfield mowing and turf management is good for the game. For example, Eden Gardens is one of the great cricket grounds. The playing surface compares favourably with any cricket ground in the world. There is no reason why most stadiums in India can not eventually achieve the same surface quality.

The cricket ground curator

I understand that at most grounds in India the honorary curator is an elected position within the State Cricket Association. Some of the curators I met in India were very impressive people with good experience and were doing a wonderful job. Unfortunately, sometimes the person elected did not have experience or skills of the others. In most other countries the curator is a professional position and the curator has qualifications in cricket pitch management. 

The cricket authorities need to provide structures to train new curators and to provide support for existing curators. The BCCI have an excellent system of regional advisors under the control of Mr Kasturi Rangan to provide support for the curators in each zone. More formalised training is needed so curators are trained before they take control of major stadiums. Fortunately, most grounds have experienced staff under the curator, who can continue to prepare pitches if there is a sudden change of curator.

While the option of providing more support and training to curators is a good idea, I believe that sooner or later professional curators will be needed.

How good are Indian cricket pitches?

It is up to the players, the officials, the media and the public to judge this question. When players are asked to objectively assess the quality of cricket pitches, they give the highest score to pitches with good pace, consistent bounce and not too much seam or spin. These are the type of pitches that are being aimed for around the world, and will be demanded in India if world trends are followed. 

The pitch improvement process

It is a mistake to believe that simply digging up a pitch and re-laying it will solve all problems. Some blocks have been re-laid with an excellent soil, others with less suitable soils. The process of relaying blocks and trying different soils will be an ongoing one in India, as it is elsewhere in the world. I suspect that some of the soils chosen will prove to be unsuitable. The process followed in New Zealand is that prospective soils are tested at our lab and the unsuitable ones are discarded. Not all of the soils that appear to be good cricket soils always perform well. Some develop problems that testing cannot pick up. India needs to develop its own soil testing lab or to use one in another country, so that better soils are located and used otherwise resources will be wasted.

The better performing soils are often more difficult to manage than poorer soils, so it often takes a  year or two for curators to learn how to get the best performance out of the soil. During this time pitches can actually perform worse than the old soil. Education can help to shorten this time.

I hope the process of pitch improvement is not judged on the basis of the blocks that have been re-laid recently. It will be an ongoing process that must continue as better performing soils are found.

New Zealand Sports Turf Institute director Bill Walmsley is an agronomist with 23 years experience in soil, grass selection and wicket science. He visited grounds in Bangalore, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Mohali, Kanpur, Nagpur, Kolkata, Cuttack and Chennai last September and updated the report submitted in May 1997, by Keith McAuliffe and Russell Smith.