Pitch preparation under scrutiny in domestic cricket this season

Pitch preparation will be an exercise which will be under the immense scrutiny of Board of Control for Cricket in India this season. In previous seasons, there have been situations when the pitches were criticised a lot by the visiting teams and that created a lot of controversies.

The similar practice is followed in international fixtures already where pitch preparation has been looked into closely by BCCI. This will be a new process which will be forced in domestic cricket as the administration looks to prop up the character of domestic cricket. BCCI is also expecting the domestic cricket to be played in front of packed stadiums if not a decent crowd.

As far as pitch preparation is concerned, BCCI has appointed curators who will monitor the process. “Curators appointed by the Board will monitor the pitch preparations,” a senior BCCI official informed The Hindu.

“The decision was taken by the BCCI’s Ground and Pitches Committee. It will deploy curators who would work with the host ground staff to oversee pitch making. It was not a practice prevalent for Ranji matches in the past. They will give directions to the local curator so that the First-Class matches are played on fair pitches — helping the seamer in the beginning and spinners later,” the official added.

Captains will submit umpiring report

There have been several complaints over the last couple of seasons regarding the poor umpiring in the domestic cricket. The decisions given at the crucial point in the match have been extremely poor in the past which has turned the tide of the match. So the BCCI has decided to revive the process of captains’ report. The official also explained the process BCCI would follow in order to improve the umpiring.

“The idea had been discontinued because the captains were not taking interest in providing the data. Now they have been told to fill up the form meticulously and rate the umpire. This will be one of the parameters to rate the umpires. The other two are umpires’ review committee and the match referees,” the official stated.

The care has also been taken to attract the spectators to watch the domestic matches which are often played in empty stadiums. “Home matches should bring more fans. We will also invite schools and colleges to come and watch for free. Watching home teams would evince interest,” the BCCI official concluded.