HAVING A BALL My missus should take her CV to Centurion
Dear Bryan Bloy
Iam sure you are a patriotic South African, but what the hell happened to your preparation of the pitch for the second Test between South Africa and India at Centurion?
Being a groundsman is, I’m certain, a thankless job. You rely on the weather to play ball – and these days you would have as much joy relying on our government to keep the country ticking over – and it is impossible to please all the people all the time.
But if you are going to please someone for a home Test match, surely it should be the home side? Virat Kohli and his Indian side must have danced a jig when they saw what you had dished up. It resembled more the pitches they are used to playing on back home than something in South Africa.
I know we had a heatwave on the Highveld leading up to the match, but Centurion does have borehole water and there is no reason why you couldn’t have sprinkled a bit on that pitch to give it some life. I’ve seen more life on the beach than in that strip.
Preparing a pitch to suit your opposition makes no sense whatsoever. That is why teams play at home and away. When you are at
Guy Hawthorne
home, conditions should be tailored to suit your strengths. Preparing a pitch to suit the opposition is a bit like Lewis Hamilton racing in the British Grand Prix on a tricycle.
I can’t remember when last I watched a Test in which a spin bowler sent down 31 overs on day one. But that was what Ashwin did for India. Now don’t get me wrong, I know he is a fine bowler, but he was getting turn akin to that on a four- or five-day-old pitch and he finished the day with 3/90.
Thank goodness we picked Keshav Maharaj. If we had gone with an all-seam attack, we would have been in serious trouble. As it was, it made for a Test where, apart from those guys with the ability to give the ball a tweak, the batsmen were on top of the bowlers.
I love Test cricket, mainly because of the battles within the battle, with bowlers testing batsmen and vice-versa. But when a pitch makes a contest so one-sided – and it would have been more so but for some terrible shot selection on both sides – it detracts from the spectacle.
My missus is a dab hand in the garden, even down to keeping our lawn in pristine nick. The last impromptu match we played at the bottom of the garden was on a strip any fast bowler would have been proud of. It had pace and bounce and the fact that our lawn is far from even made for some interesting deviations off the pitch.
Granted, the fact that most of the participants had enjoyed a good few adult beverages out in the hot sun contributed to the havoc. But if she can do it, surely you can as well...