Ferozeshah Kotla will face the biggest test in its long history on Thursday when it hosts the first international match — a key World Cup encounter — in almost 14 months on a brand new and completely untested pitch.
As the West Indies take on South Africa in a Group B match, officials of the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) will wait with bated breath to see how the virgin pitch behaves.
For over three months, no match has been played on the three pitches earmarked for the World Cup and on which new grass was sown after the Delhi- Gujarat Ranji Trophy four-day match ended on November 20. But International Cricket Council (ICC) pitch consultant Andy Atkinson, under whose supervision the pitch has been prepared, is not worried. Or, if he is, he is not showing it.
It is this worry – though no DDCA official is accepting it – that Atkinson has been camping in Delhi since Friday and will not budge from here until February 28, the day the Kotla will host the second of the four World Cup matches, between the West Indies and the Netherlands.
In normal circumstances, he would probably have gone to another venue to oversee the preparations there. Atkinson claimed that the decision not to play any matches on the new pitches since November was DDCA’s and not his. “I didn’t insist on anything – that they should play any matches on them or not – it was their decision not to play.
But that’s okay,” Atkinson said. Top DDCA officials have been claiming that it was Atkinson who stopped them from playing any warmup matches until the start of the World Cup to assess the pitch behaviour.
Without doubt the eyes of the whole world will be on the Kotla, which was banned for a year by the ICC in January last year for providing a pitch with unusually excess bounce for an India-Sri Lanka One-day International (ODI) on December 27, 2009, when batsmen were hit on their bodies.
Unlike the previous occasion when the Board of Control for Cricket in India sacked its pitch and ground committee after the fiasco, Atkinson has now taken it upon himself to see the match through.
“Yeah, the pitch preparation is my responsibility. I’m sure it will behave well this time. I am here till February 28 to see the second match through,” said Atkinson.
When he visited the Kotla a couple of weeks ago, he had given the same “guarantee”, according to DDCA officials. But the ground reality is that no one can accurately predict the behaviour of a pitch.
Atkinson, however, admitted that the unusual rains in the last two days and a weak sun have affected the final phase of the pitch preparation. The showers have left the ground damp even though the pitch has been protected well by the covers. “The sun is out but it’s like lacking the warmth. I wish it shines brightly tomorrow because it’s winter and the grass doesn’t grow here in winter,” he said.
A member of the ground staff said the watering of the pitch has been stopped as it will be difficult to roll it since the sun has not shone brightly and the weather has become damp. Wednesday is the last day for the ground staff to put all their efforts, but no one has control over weather.
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