Done 038; Dusted in two days

Baroda-Karnataka semifinal over after 33 wickets fall in five sessions; debate over neutral venues reopens

Three seasons ago,the Board of Control for Cricket in India BCCI had toyed with the idea of hosting the knockout matches in the Ranji Trophy at neutral venues. The experiment was tried out for two seasons before the boards technical committee decided to abandon it. The reason given by the BCCI for terminating the concept was that the teams were being robbed of receiving support from their home fans.

On Tuesday,as he stood aghast at the IPCL Reliance ground following his team8217;s disastrous loss within five sessions against Baroda,Karnataka captain Vinay Kumar could be pardoned for vociferously advocating the return of neutral venues for the latter stages of the country8217;s premier domestic competition. After all,he had witnessed his team lose 20 wickets in just 74.4 overs for a total of 195 runs in two innings.

Rather than playing on such wickets,its better to play the knockout games at neutral venues. The ball was turning sharply from early on and it was too tough to play here, said Vinay Kumar of the IPCL pitch,which in fact saw three innings being completed before the tea-break on the second day.

But while the state of the pitch and probably also the ease with which they eventually won left even the home team flabbergasted,all the BCCI can do is ask the match referee,Manu Nayyar,to submit a report.

The boards chief administrative officer CAO Ratnakar Shetty insisted that the BCCI had its hands tied in such a scenario. These problems arent new for the BCCI. That is why,three years ago,the technical committee felt that knockout matches should be played in neutral venues. But many felt spectators werent turning up for neutral games so we went back to the original home-and-away formula, he said.

The BCCI also has a ground and pitches committee,which is in place to ensure that sporty wickets are being prepared but things have been different in reality. A member of the committee said: BCCI cant do much because every state association makes the pitch looking at their strengths. There is no one to monitor on how they go about preparing the pitch. We dont know whether they have rolled it properly or not. We just guide them while the rest is in the state associations hands.

The two coaches,meanwhile,were reserved in their criticism of the IPCL wicket. While expressing his surprise at the pitch8217;s behaviour,Baroda coach Mukesh Narula revealed that the home team had asked for a slow-turner and had not been prepared for what they were provided with. But he believed that his skipper Pinal Shah,the only half-centurion of the match,had shown the perfect discipline to succeed in conditions like these.