A curate's egg

Navjot Singh Sidhu famously said that the behaviour of pitches, like wives, cannot be predicted. Not a bad comparison. No match is complete without a discussion on the nature of the pitch (and, of course, also the umpiring), despite the fact that many scientific measures have been taken by the ICC and several boards to standardise pitches. And though there are enough regulations to ensure players don't fiddle with the rules, smart players always manage to find a loophole.

In 1970, South Africa's captain Ali Bacher peeped into the Australian dressing room some 45 minutes before the start of the Durban Test . Somewhat disingenuously, Bacher asked the Australian captain Bill Lawry whether he was ready for the toss. Lawry thought nothing of the question or its timing, and said he was ready. Within a minute of Bacher winning the toss, the ground staff was seen mowing the pitch.

Bacher had taken advantage of the rules prevalent at that time that a pitch could be mowed within half an hour before the start of play. A green top became a good batting track, South Africa piled up 622 runs, and Australia lost by an innings. Bacher had outwitted Lawry.

Mercifully, things have changed since then but some domestic cricket associations in India have frequently tinkered with the pitches to suit the bowling side if the opposition is weak. The match between Railways and Assam in the second round of the Ranji Trophy this year is a perfect example.

The Assam captain Amol Muzumdar, who brought up his 10,000th first-class runs in that game, came away covered with bruises after being hit by the ball. Mind you he was facing Sanjay Bangar's military medium and Murali Kartik's spin. He used the cricketer's slang for a poor pitch to describe the Karnail Singh track: akhaada or a wrestler's mud pit.

One delivery from Kartik kicked up so viciously from a length that it was intercepted by Banger at wide first slip. Many deliveries reared off a length and flew over the wicketkeeper. Muzumdar said he felt fortunate to be alive. The pitch apparently was attended to on the previous day for just 10 minutes; the home team's intention was to have an underprepared track to gain full points. Wonder what the match referee reported to the Indian board.

Some years ago, Sunil Gavaskar, as Chairman of the BCCI Technical Committee, had recommended that the choice of batting or fielding may be given to the visiting team to nullify the home advantage. It was however, argued that the toss itself is a very fair way to decide that. If the home team prepares a green top or a rank bad turner to suit their bowlers and loses the toss, it's their batsmen who would be at the mercy of the opposition. Incidentally, Muzumdar's Assam were the ones who ended up with first innings points.

Moving on, the two rounds of this season's Ranji Trophy matches have highlighted the bowlers' skills on placid tracks. Some of the bowlers have clinched outright wins for their teams, and it's not just because the SG Test ball is bowler-friendly. In the first round 11,986 runs were scored and 428 wickets were taken. That's 28 runs per wicket. In the second round 9880 runs were scored and 313 wickets were taken at a strike rate of 31. That can only be good for Indian cricket.

This season, a majority of wickets have fallen to the medium pacers. An analysis of their performance suggests that the bowlers are now reconciled to the fact that pitches are not going to be conducive to quick bowling, and have obtained success through conventional swing and reverse swing.

Deepak Chahar's sensational spell for Rajasthan against Hyderabad on the Sawai Mansingh stadium proves again that a quality bowler can excel even on a placid surface. He not only ran through the side on the first day, with figures of 8 for 10, but excelled in the second innings as well by taking four wickets.

Players may change but cricket's unwritten truths remain the same. Almost 20 years ago, during the 1981 Ranji Trophy final at the Wankhede Stadium, on a perfect batting track Mumbai's Balwinder Singh Sandhu swung out Delhi's top order in the first hour of the play. He did what Chahar has now done - stick to the basics, regardless of the nature of pitch.

If the tracks play too slow though, they will always come under criticism. Mumbai cited the slowness and the lack of bounce on the MCA Bandra pitch as the reason for not enforcing the follow-on in their first game against Saurashtra. At Eden Gardens, both Mumbai and Bengal complained of the sluggish nature of the pitch.

Barring a few pitches, the majority have had proper supervision from the BCCI's pitches and grounds committee, who had the unequivocal brief that at no stage should there be any tampering to give unfair advantage to the home team. In many cases those briefs don't work like they should.

So why not have an award for the best curator based on the performance of the pitch throughout the season based on runs scored and wickets fallen at the venue? This could kick-start a healthy trend.