Warwickshire escape pitch penalty

Warwickshire will face no penalty for the pitch prepared for the County Championship match against Somerset at Edgbaston which was rated "poor" by the umpires for uneven bounce.

Eighteen wickets fell on the second day and numerous batsmen were struck on the body before rain wiped out the rest of the match.

A report compiled by the cricket liaison officer in attendance for the game was submitted to the cricket discipline commission while the ECB pitch consultant visited Edgbaston to produce his own report.

The Chairman of the CDC considered these reports against the requirement that "each county shall actively seek to prepare the best quality cricket pitch that it can for the match that it is staging" and concluded that there was no evidence to suggest that Warwickshire had breached this requirement.

After finding out the pitch would be reported Dougie Brown, Warwickshire's director of cricket, said: "It was not the type of pitch we wanted. There were cracks but was it dangerous? No.

"We all know here that Gary Barwell is the best groundsman in the country by a mile. He was preparing this pitch 14/16 days ahead, as always, and when he started it was in snow and ice. Then the weather flipped on its head and suddenly it was very hot, so the drying process was accelerated by the weather.

"When the cricket liaison officer said the pitch had been reported we were incredibly surprised."

The uneven surface went against the trend of the season so far which has seen more batsman-friendly pitches following the decision to give the visiting team the option to bowl first without a toss. Before the current round of the Championship matches began there had been just eight positives results in the two divisions.