Pitch committee's intentions good but...

The Indian cricketers have always thrived on home soil and turning tracks. The toughest of teams have suffered because of the vagaries of the dusty, spinning wickets. However, the recent debacle in Australia has also affected the pitch committee formed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India. They have realised the importance of sporting wickets and as a result are determined to prevent the Indian team from playing on spinning tracks against South Africa.

The pitch committee comprising K. Srikkanth (Chairman), Surinder Khanna, Gopal Bose, Dhiraj Parsana and Kasturi Rangan had a discussion to this effect at a meeting in Mumbai about a month ago. At the meeting, it was decided that Srikkanth would arrive in Mumbai and Bangalore two days before the start of the Test matches against South Africa to supervise the preparation of the wickets. "We want the Tests to be played on true, hard wickets," said Gopal Bose, a representative of the pitch committee. "The host associations of the Tests and the One day Internationals have also said that they would cooperate with our directives regarding the pitches."

But what if the captain and the coach of the side pressurise the association to prepare spinning wickets? "The Associations have informed us that they will not succumb to any pressure this time. However, if they do so, our hands are tied. We really cannot do anything. We can only suggest, cannot enforce," said Bose in Calcutta on Tuesday.

The Pitch Committee also is at a loss regarding the term `sporting' regarding the preparation of wickets. "It is not possible to build up a sporting pitch in a week. To make a sporting wicket one has to remove the first four layers of the pitch and then again relay them," said Bose. "So it would not be possible to have a sporting pitch overnight. It is a long process and it all depends on how the associations co-operate with us."

The Pitch Committee is not worried about the wickets for the five one day internationals against South Africa. "They will be batting tracks. Again the emphasis will be to make hard wickets so that there is an even bounce," said Bose.

The intentions of the pitch committee are quite good. But then if India manages to win the first Test against South Africa, their suggestions may well be forgotten in the euphoria of the victory. Then everybody may once agian revert back to the age old theory of a track where dust flies from the first day itself.