pitches vs formats

[jan]

Browsing thru some pics of cricket grounds I started to wonder - there are cricket stadiums where there is more than one pitch on the ground. Obviously the central one is used in most of the pics or vids I saw. But do official games alwas take place on this one pitch/wicket?
Sorry if my terminolgy isnt correct but this venue/ground/pitch/wicket stuff is still bit confusing for me.

Are there different pitches for each format of the game? Does it even matter what pitch is a game played on in terms of better/worse result in each format or are pitches just universal?
During a test there is lot more running and bowling the pitch gets compared to a t20 game. So Id imagine that for this reason they use different pitch for each format if they have an extra one.

Am I completely mistaken, do the groundstaff just prepare pitch accordingly to each format? Or are there cricket grounds that "specialize" only in one of the three formats?


Thanks
jan

 

[Neil Pickup]

There are usually upwards of 20 wickets on a first-class square in the UK - even club and school grounds have 8-10 on the square. The biggest reason for this is often, as you imagine, usage - they will rotate around wickets to make sure they are not worn out.

A lot of clubs will use the outer wickets for junior age groups (shorter lengths), whilst professional grounds tend to use the outer wickets for OD/T20 games as the boundary is necessarily shorter. These will often be used for back to back games, however. There tends not to be a great deal of variance between wickets at one ground, but I would imagine different pitches will be prepared in different ways for different formats - the Test grounds* obviously put a great deal of effort into the flagship pitch for the big game.

*except Galle