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Marsh hits out at state of English pitches

Geoff Marsh , the Zimbabwe coach, has criticised the state of English pitches, claiming that they are a poor breeding-ground for top-class international bowlers

Wisden CricInfo staff
10-Jul-2003
Geoff Marsh, the Zimbabwe coach, has criticised the state of English pitches, claiming that they are a poor breeding-ground for top-class international bowlers.
On the eve of the Zimbabweans' final game of a disappointing tour of England, Marsh said: "A lot of the wickets we've played on here this summer have given too much assistance to the faster bowlers. I'm not saying this as an excuse for our batting performances - with our inexperience we would probably have struggled on better wickets."
He continued: "But playing on pitches offering generous seam and bounce can give a false impression of a bowler's abilities. Don't get me wrong, England have a good pace attack with Gough, Anderson, Johnson, Harmison and Hoggard. The danger is that they don't develop into complete bowlers who are capable of winning Test matches on flat Asian, Australian, South African and West Indian wickets."
Marsh added: "Gough is an exception to that because he's proved himself overseas, but he may not play much Test cricket in future. It's young bowlers like Anderson, Harmison and Hoggard who will need to learn subtle variations and master different deliveries to take wickets when the ball doesn't swing and seam."
Marsh, who played 50 Tests for Australia as an opener, pointed to the pitches at Lord's for the first Test and Headingley, Cardiff and Bristol in the NatWest Series as examples of bowler-friendly conditions. "It's not just international matches that are affected. We played at Worcester at the start of the tour where the ball moved off the seam throughout the match.
"Kabir Ali took five wickets in our second innings, but in terms of developing his skills he would have been better off bowling on the tracks we played on at Hove or Shenley, where every wicket had to be earned.
"Look at the example of a bowler like Heath Streak. He's revelled in the conditions over here because he's a classic English-style swing bowler. But he's also learned how to adapt his game to be effective in Zimbabwe and around the world on less-responsive surfaces."