In Sri Lanka, talking about the pitch is almost a crime

A surprising incident happened at the Sinhalese Cricket Club, where the second Test between India and Sri Lanka is due to start on Thursday. A groundsman when asked about the pitch, by a reporter suddenly turned petrified as if replying was a crime and ran towards the VIP pavilion. It would seem that he isn’t the one authorized to be out there and attempted to evade the question bordering on fear.

This was not the first time and the same incident took place at Galle as well. The curator and the ground-staff, who are otherwise relaxed and unbend, would react to the ‘p-word’ as if it were an expletive. The wicket at Galle played far better than ever before as it stayed a good wicket to bat on even on the last day and didn’t turn square like it had in the past.

Sealed lips

“No, no, please don’t ask anything about the pitch. And stay away from the ground, you don’t have pitch access,” a ground staff was quoted as saying.

However, it wasn’t always the case in Sri Lanka. Instead, friendly curators would charm with their anecdotes and quirkiness. But since Galle’s gregarious curator Mahinda Warnaweera was banned over alleged match-fixing and pitch-doctoring a couple of years ago, the groundsmen have become excessively wary, to the point of being paranoid.

The scepticism aggravated after the Australian media and several players tore into the Lankan curators during the tour last year when the visitors were humbled 3-0. Even before the series began, there was a public spat between Muttiah Muralitharan, Australia’s spin coach for the series, and the Sri Lankan team manager Charith Senanayake.

Senanayake even went to accuse the world class spinner of influencing the P Sara Oval curator Janaka Sampath to prepare a turning pitch for the practice match for the visitors to get acclimatized quickly for the Tests.

Following the accusations, SSC curator Michael de Zoyza labelled the Australians as poor losers and “just whinging at every turn.” But now even he is slightly guarded and elusive, “You’ll know in a few days how the pitch will behave. No speculation please,” he requests.