What a charade!

Not that shifting of the venue would have made much of a difference to the result of this semifinal. I’m also surprised to hear about the issue of rectifying the wicket at PE in such short notice, by these so-called experts appointed specially to maintain the wickets at every venue.

They were the ones who are constantly being criticised for the slowness of these tracks prepared for the event, which went contrary to the belief that all South African wickets are fast and bouncy.

The wicket at PE has not only been slow, it has also been aiding spinners. As a result, the matches have been low-scoring. The matches Australia played against England and New Zealand were low-scoring affairs.

I am surprised at claims such as the one that said they will change the nature of the wicket by making it batting savvy in a week’s time or so. Unless one decides to put in a layer of cement or concrete on top of the wicket, it is impossible to succeed.

It takes months to prepare a good wicket with constant watering and rolling. Of course, the perfect mixture of red and yellow soil is also required for a good batting track.

This episode reminds me of the semifinal India played at Eden Gardens in the 1996 World Cup against Sri Lanka when I was the team manager and Sandeep Patil was my understudy. In the quarterfinal, we had beaten our arch-rivals Pakistan at Banglore quite convincingly. Obviously, we were quite confident of defeating the Sri Lankans too. But, it was not to be. Instead, we got a pasting at their hands. The reason? The wicket.

The opening ceremony of that World Cup was held at the Eden Gardens just about a month before that fateful semi final day. The stage was erected right on the pitch, with the result that it was not possible for the wicket to be watered or rolled constantly for nearly three or four weeks.

Of course, the groundstaff tried hard to bring the wicket to perfection but there was no time at their disposal. When we enquired about the wicket from the groundstaff, we were told that the wicket would behave normally. We were also deceived by its looks.

It appeared nicely watered and rolled. It was not possible to notice the loose soil three-four inches below the surface. When we batted second, the wicket turned out to be a ring of sheer mud or the red soil, in which, our wrestlers used to have fights in good old days.

Anyway, even though the match was low-scoring, the Aussies came out of it triumphant because of sheer self-confidence, a positive attitude and of course, a great ability to play on any surface.

Also, how far could Sri Lanka have pushed its luck? They entered the semi final despite losing three games in the tournament. Their luck was bound to run out at some stage. And when Australia are the opponents, it usually does.