BCCI wants to ensure domestic matches are not played on rank turners

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is very particular about the pitches the upcoming domestic season will be played on. The board had organized a workshop where 36 curators from across the country were in attendance along with 26 from the affiliated state associations and ten curators appointed by the board. The BCCI has given a strict order to not roll out rank turners during the season as they don’t want matches to end in two days.

The board has decided to go back to the home and away concept for the country’s premier first-class tournament, the Ranji Trophy as the captains didn’t show real interest in backing the neutral venues concept which forced the teams to travel more during the season. The 2016-17 Ranji season was played at neutral venues after persistent issue with the home teams taking unfair advantage of hosting matches with doctored tracks was raised.

“Not that we had such (doctored) pitches last season but the Board has taken some commendable steps to ensure we get to see some excellent playing surfaces,” The chief curator Daljit Singh told Sportstar. “There will be obviously strict monitoring this season. We don’t want a repeat of two years ago when some associations prepared such pitches. The workshop (on Tuesday) was a good idea. It brought the curators on one platform to discuss their ideas. I am sure the BCCI has the mechanism to penalise those who indulge in doctored pitches,” he added.

Reward for the ‘best’ pitch.

The Board has decided to award an association in each Zone for preparing the best pitch which will help them increase the quality of the pitches as the curators will now compete.

“You have to reward hard work. It will create healthy competition among the curators and the players will benefit from it. We are going to have uniform way of pitch preparation with instructions in place for rolling, brushing and cutting the grass, watering the surface.” said Daljit, a former first-class cricketer.

Neutral curators will take the charge for the preparation of pitches for this season while the Match Referee will reach the venue at least two days ahead of the game to inspect the conditions.

“I have suggested that the Match Referee should also reach the venue two days before the match and take charge. It will help a lot. I can assure you we have the right people to roll out sporting pitches where the ball will spin (in South) and seam (in North). We can look forward to some good cricket this season because the intentions of the Board are good,” Daljit stated.