Ihithisham Kamardeen: C'wealth Games cricket on turf wickets (5 May 1997)

Monday 05, May 1997

C'wealth Games cricket on turf wickets

By Ihithisham Kamardeen reporting exclusively for Daily News

COLOMBO, Sunday : Next year's Commonwealth Games cricket competition is now expected to be played on turf rather than artificial pitches, lifting the tournament to virtual World Cup standard.

The organising committee for the 1998 Kuala Lumpur Commonwealth Games SUKOM, was going to wait for a recommendation from the International Cricket Council (ICC) meeting in London in June before deciding on what type of surface to use.

But SUKOM's cricket venue manager Hector Durairatnam said that turf wickets were already being developed for the eight grounds at which cricket will be played during the Games from September 11-21 next year.

``Our original bid to host the Games was based on the cricket competition being played on synthetic wickets,'' Durairatnam told `Daily News' from Malaysia.

``While the ICC had sanctioned our use of the artificial pitches, it would not have been considered an international standard competition and performances by the players would not have counted towards their international career averages and statistics.

``So now we are developing turf wickets beside the existing artificial pitches with help from the New Zealand Sports Turf Institute.''

The 16-team competition will include most of the Test playing nations and now takes on the appearance of a virtual World Cup one-day tournament.

Although England is demanding appearance fees to ensure its senior players come to the Games, SUKOM expects Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Zimbabwe, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka to send virtual top line teams.

Other countries in the competition include Bermuda and Guyana, which will be playing as individual nations rather than under the West Indies banner, and qualifying countries like Kenya, Ireland and Bangladesh.

Bangladesh beat Kenya in the final of the recent ICC Trophy one-day competition for non-Test playing nations hosted by Malaysia, but played on Kuala Lumpur's existing synthetic pitches.

Malaysian Cricket Association development officer Zurayda Mohamed said turf wickets would be needed eventually anyway if local cricket was going to develop properly and achieve the dream of breaking into the first class or Test playing ranks.

But while the pitch issue seems to be settled, it is yet to be seen how Malaysia's unsettled tropical weather will affect the cricket competition at the 16th Commonwealth Games.

Many of the ICC Trophy games had to be finished with teams chasing rain-reduced targets and some matches were washed out.

Durairatnam admitted the weather could be a big problem.

``September has been the driest part of the year in Kuala Lumpur for the past 15 years, but with our weather you can never tell,'' he said.

``So we are working with the NZ Sports Turf Institute to ensure we have first-rate drainage for the outfields on all eight grounds where cricket will be played.''

Source :: Daily News (https://www.lanka.net)