Goodbye doctored wickets, welcome sporting tracks

The cry for faster, greener wickets in India has always been loud and clear. Little however has been done to put such plans into effect. Administrators, ground authorities and the team management have always believed in preparing designer pitches that favour the home team, even though they are fully aware that the result could mean hollow victories in this country but repeated humiliation when they play abroad. Even the Board of Control for Cricket in India appointed grounds and pitches committee has done little in this regard.

Now however with the background of the latest thrashing the Indian team has received in Australia, the BCCI has at last risen to the gravity of the situation. And when the committee, headed by former Indian captain K Srikkanth, met in Mumbai on Friday a lot of importance was attached to the deliberations at the meeting.

The committee - the other members are Surinder Khanna (North Zone), G Kasturi Rangan (South Zone), Gopal Bose (East Zone), Dhiraj Parsana (West Zone) and Vinod Mathur (Central Zone) - met at the Wankhede stadium ostensibly to review the inspection of facilities at the venues for the series against South Africa commencing next month. But they also expressed unanimity that the need of the hour for Indian cricket was the preparation of sporting wickets.

At an earlier meeting in Chennai last month, Srikkanth made it clear that the committee would look at the long term benefits. ``We have all realised that for the betterment of Indian cricket we have to prepare sporting wickets. Initially we might struggle and we may lose one or two series badly. But we will have a better future, '' said Srikkanth.

The forthright Indian captain was of the view that too much has been made of spin being the Indian strength. He said that in recent years Javagal Srinath had won for India almost as many matches as Anil Kumble. ``And his performances have been achieved on our so called turning tracks,'' he said.

Going by what Srikkanth has said and at the committee's seriousness in tackling the issue, one would not be surprised if, instead of the usual doctored wickets, a bouncy, green strip is prepared for the series against the South Africans, notwithstanding the fact that the visitors have Donald and Pollock in their ranks.