On paper, Sunday’s India-Pakistan clash doesn’t hold much importance considering the fact that the opponents in the next round are allocated on pre-tournament seeding and thus it is not that important to top this group. The losing team should win its other matches comfortably to advance to the next round.
But from the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) point of view, the match holds significance as it hopes to tap in a market whose time zones are not friendly to existing fans elsewhere and where fandom is restricted to expats. The revenue generated from an India-Pakistan clash also partly gives ICC the license to spread their wings.
However, the undercooked pitches at cricket’s latest market — USA — are already getting a thumbs down from cricket experts across the globe. Excessive seam movement and bounce, which is also excessively variable have already marred the start of the tournament. A look at the pitches for the first three games (including the warm-up), it won’t have taken the ICC long to earn serious sanctions for established stadiums.
If the first two matches, between South Africa and Sri Lanka, and India and Ireland are taken into consideration, the batters were seen fumbling, ducking and weaving, and eventually failed to get past 96 batting first in both matches so far. As such, the possibilities of a high-scoring thriller on Sunday could be thrown out of the window in the first place.
The conditions have been anything but standard. Even after spending a good 25 overs on the field during India’s opener against Ireland, Rohit Sharma appeared clueless when he was asked about the nature of the track. Both Rohit and Rishabh Pant were all hit by the ball because it bounced in a way the batters didn’t expect it to.
“I don’t know what to expect from the pitch but we will prepare as if conditions are going to be like that,” Rohit said.
Rohit, however added that it was good to spend some time in the middle irrespective of the nature of the pitch as the Men-in-Blue prepares for a bigger contest against Pakistan.
“We are open to making changes to the team’s needs (against Pakistan). That will be a game where all XI of us need to come together and contribute. It was scratchy but good to spend time in the middle, hopefully we can do the same (against Pakistan),” he said.
The contributing circumstances that led to the pitches being left undercooked were because those were used directly for hosting international cricket. Usually when a new pitch is laid, it takes at least 10-12 matches of junior cricket and then senior domestic cricket before allotting international matches.
In New York, the stadium was prepared in a hurry, with the drop in pitches brought in from Australia, where the conditions are vastly different from New York. And when those pitches were transferred, the weather in New York was cold and rainy, due to which those had to be transferred to Florida to provide the conditions for those to get ready before being ferried back to NY.
In fact, when Rohit and India’s head coach Rahul Dravid, who arrived early to the US to prepare for the tournament along with half the side, wanted to have a look at the ground and the pitch before the warm-up game against Bangladesh, they were turned away as the stadium was practically handed over to the ICC on the eve of the contest.
Having said that, not much can be done now, and the teams will have to compete in these “substandard pitches”, as suggested by former English cricketer Michael Vaughan. It could once again be a bowlers’ paradise with Pakistan’s speed guns ready to take down India’s famed batting line-up. The Indian bowling attack can’t be discounted either, as the pace battery showed their prowess against Ireland, and it could well turn out a challenging low-scoring thriller on Sunday.
While the ICC could be commended for taking cricket to newer audiences, it could have spared a moment to think about the fitness concerns of teams given the nature of the pitches. But again, it’s an India-Pakistan contest, and expecting a full house, the ICC’s commercial partners won’t mind even a low-scoring thriller.