Decision on Wanderers unfair – CEO

GAUTENG Cricket Board (GCB) chief executive Greg Fredericks has described the decision by the International Cricket Council (ICC) to give Wanderers Stadium three demerit points as “unfair”.

The match referee for the third Test between South Africa and India‚ Andy Pycroft‚ rated the pitch as “poor” and three demerit points will remain active for a rolling five-year period. The stadium will be suspended for a year if it reaches the threshold of five in that period.

“I think the punishment we got from the ICC was unfair for various reasons. That Test match lasted for four days and our last two Tests lasted for three days.

“On day three [of the SA-India Test] 342 runs were scored by India and there were no complaints from them‚” said Fredericks.

Stumps were called early on day three by the umpires after South African opening batsman Dean Elgar was hit by a bouncer from Jasprit Bumrah on the helmet with the pitch showing excessive movement and steep bounce.

“To be truthful‚ we tried to produce a good pitch with pace and bounce but maybe we overemphasised that with our groundsman‚” Fredericks said.

“They tried their best but there were other factors because when we looked at the weather forecast for the five days we were expecting storms – and nothing happened.

“The guys admitted that maybe because they were expecting storms‚ they did not water it that much as they should have.

“Our pitch had a little bit of grass and I thought they should cut it but they said that was what the South African captain wanted,” Fredericks added. —