"It will be a good wicket" - Dayle Hadlee

Few people know the behavioural characteristics of the Bert Sutcliffe Oval, the centrepiece ground of the ICC Under-19 World Cup which starts at Lincoln University tomorrow, better than Dayle Hadlee.

The director of New Zealand's cricket academy at the High Performance Centre at Lincoln, Hadlee is also manager of the New Zealand team.

The tournament's opening game, between New Zealand and Sri Lanka, is to be played on the ground, and it will also be the venue for the tournament's semi-finals and final.

Looking at the pitch today, Hadlee said it will have the look of a day one wicket about it.

"But with good heat and sunlight on it today it should harden up.

"It will be absolutely all right.

"Teams will see the grass in it but that only gives the pitch pace, there is not a lot of movement in it.

"It will be a very good wicket," he said.

Using a marquee on the ground to get the pitch ready for tomorrow's opener had provided some unexpected problems.

The marquee was used to keep the rain off the pitch while pitch preparations were done. But when the sun unexpectedly appeared on Wednesday, the marquee couldn't be removed so the pitch also being readied outside the marquee ended up being ready for use much earlier and will be used tomorrow.