BCCI’s problem: Pitch curators who lack technical skills

A rather interesting piece in the newspapers on Wednesday morning caught my eye. A Ranji Trophy match between Mumbai and Uttar Pradesh ended at the Wankhede Stadium ended after 1190 runs were scored in four days.

A day from way back, from the days when the tournament was played on zonal basis. Sordid memories came flowing back – Delhi playing Services at the old Ferozshah Kotla and Ajay Sharma coming in to open. Delhi would then play for two-and-a-half days, Sharma scoring 250 not out, and then Services playing out the rest of the time.

Or, if Manindar Singh managed to find a solitary crack, fold up and lose in a day. Either way, it was a sordid dream. Cut back to 2015. This Mumbai-UP game would certainly have been played on the same square where South Africa really took it to India and then Ravi Shastri really took it to Sudhir Naik.

Soon after, was the Mohali Test, where it all started with Virat Kohli touching curator Daljit Singh’s feet and ended with the entire team management shaking his hand. To all intents and purposes, he’d made the perfect pitch for India, while Naik had not. This brings up a question.

Which of these gentlemen actually know about soil conditions or are educated in such arts?

The only pitch expert with any formal training I recall was Kasturirangan. How I know he had the said skills is because he garnered those in Mysore along with my father, who was a horticulturist by profession, and a mean one. Now, there’s no conflict of interest here, since Ghosh Sr is long departed. I’m just saying that, of all the skills that BCCI claims its office-bearers or functionaries possess, pitch creation is right at the top in terms of technical skill requirement – which most don’t have.

Now, Daljit Singh made the fastest and bounciest track in India in 1994. West Indies skipper Courtney Walsh took one look and began to dance. On the other hand, manager Ajit Wadekar and skipper Mohd. Azharuddin, in their inimitable styles, tried to castigate Daljit. It was a disaster! Pace and bounce on an Indian pitch? That too against the West Indies?

But it was too late. The result was predictable. India went down in a heap despite some heroic defiance from Manoj Prabhakar, which got him a century and a fractured nose. No one else did anything of note.

Back to Mohali in 2015 and it is the same Daljit Singh in-charge of a track that threatened to end proceedings on the second day itself.

While all would have been congratulating him, if South Africa had played with half a brain, India would have lost.

So did Daljit wave magic wand and Mohali became a dust bowl from Perth? Absolutely not. It just wore itself down with decades of use, and all it needed was a little less attention, and presto! India had a winning track. More such stuff is promised. Bangalore is next, and there must be frantic running around to ensure that pitch turns viciously when R. Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja bowl on it, and not at when its the South Africans’ turn.

More so now, with the change of guard in the BCCI. With the Karnataka boys, including former India stars, quietly toeing the self-serving line when N. Srinivasan was in power, have to find a new line to toe with Manohar in harness. So India losing there will be a disaster! Already, DDCA is out of the picture with Pawar and Pune getting more incentives from the new gang.

While Bangalore still isn’t under that threat, there are five new Test centres, so the pie will be sliced smaller in days to come. There used to be a pitches and grounds committee, where a former first-class player used to fly around, wearing a ridiculous Stetson, making TA and DA and disappearing into the soil whenever India went down.

Which, to be fair, wasn’t too frequently. Still didn’t take away from the fact that there was no real science involved. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. But if it is too fast, break it up… I really do love to see a Test where the fast bowlers come steaming in and the batsmen jump around for a bit. Then they score some fine centuries before the spinners get into the act and it becomes a deadly battle of wits and skill.

I don’t like seeing Tests where Ashwin opens the bowling and Vernon Philander the batting (what were South Africa thinking??). So if that means that the Indians will be stretched a bit, so be it. What’s the point of having it all your way. Home advantage wasn’t really proved at Mohali. South Africa could well have won, or at least been in the fight for way longer than they did. So let’s not tout ‘home advantage’ here.

What we do need is a little education among those making pitches, so that prediction isn’t left to the good offices of Guesswork & Luck. And a little more interest for us poor Test fans. A real Test really does give us a lot to look forward to.

– Views expressed by the author are personal