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"Doctored" pitches

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
The problem may not extend to ground-sharing, but rest assured, extended and cross-lapping seasons are not a problem unique to New Zealand.
It causes massive problems here, too.
 

thehellraiser

School Boy/Girl Captain
yes i think that this claim is wrong by smith......just trying to stir up some controversy and get inside the heads of the kiwis i guess......gona be a real close series though.......the kiwis are gonna be tough to beat at home
 

cbuts

International Debutant
also it will be hard to produce any good pitches due to the weather - its one of the worst summers i can remeber for a long time - unlike last years cracker. club pitches are still green and soft. its raining every other day. january in welllington was the wettest since records began!

also the staduim have got a concert this weekend. its meant to rain sunday monday tuesday, and theres an ODI on friday

hamilton is a cricket ground like the basin, probally has winter club sport on it - the basin has both club rugby and soccer. napier usses drop in pitches. the NZRFU have had the sevens leg there in the first weekend of february for the past 5 years.
 

Langeveldt

Soutie
I was watching Aussie rules on TV and it looked like the MCG, and then the 'Gabba???

Doesnt seem to affect these pitches, they are cracking!
 

prithvi

Cricket Spectator
"Last season's India series was an aberration brought about mainly through experiments aimed at getting the results mentioned in point 1, and extremely uncooperative weather. Like it or not, with climate change, these are our summers now."

hey - what kind of excuse was that?? these are international pitches and professional groundsmen - did they have to 'experiment' in a test series? and what does the weather have to do with the amount of grass thats left on the pitch? dont grass cutters/mowers work in NZ summers?

u will obviously see that the india tour to NZ is still a sore point with some indians - worsened by the fact that we didnt return the favour. if india had prepared minefields for a touring team, we would never have heard the end of it.
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
Hard Harry said:
Perhaps that has contributed to the drop in quality of English cricket over the last decade-and-a-bit?
Pehaps?
IMO it's beyond a question that it has.
 

prithvi

Cricket Spectator
Richard said:
Pehaps?
IMO it's beyond a question that it has.
yep- on that, i would agree. its been a while since england has produced a quality cricketer who would put fear in the opposition. the recent 'greats' of eng cricket include alec stewart and nasser hussein, both of whom average less than 40 in test cricket. and there doesnt seem to be anyone in the horizon, other than flintoff and maybe, vaughan to an extent, who can lift eng out of this mess.

i think its going to take atleast 6-7 years for eng to be competitive in test cricket again - and im talking abt being competitive with the best - aus, SA and india. england can forget the ashes for a long long time !!
 

marc71178

Eyes not spreadsheets
prithvi said:
i think its going to take atleast 6-7 years for eng to be competitive in test cricket again - and im talking abt being competitive with the best - aus, SA and india. england can forget the ashes for a long long time !!
Well England and SA had a drawn series last summer, we drew with India the year before and in between gave a reasonable effort in the Ashes (all things considered)

That said I wouldn't be bracketing India with Australia and SA as the "best" until they actually win an away series.
 

SirBloody Idiot

Cricketer Of The Year
Richard said:
So the rest (bar Basin Reserve) have still got squares that are trampled on by rugby players for 6 or 7 months?
I am right that McLean Park, Carisbrook, WP Trust Park, WP Trust Stadium and the two aforementioned are all primarily rugby stadiums?
Yeah, Australia have alright pitches though.

The MCG, SCG, GABBA and so on have Aussie Rules and the rugby league crap played on it most of the year...
 

Dick Rockett

International Vice-Captain
prithvi said:
hey - what kind of excuse was that?? these are international pitches and professional groundsmen - did they have to 'experiment' in a test series? and what does the weather have to do with the amount of grass thats left on the pitch? dont grass cutters/mowers work in NZ summers?
By and large the experiments worked - the pitches had much more pace and bounce than is usual in this country. The problem was excessive sideways movement, which combined with the pace and bounce, made life extremely difficult for the batsmen.

As for mowers, don't be ridiculous. Preparing a decent pitch is much more than mowing a strip of grass - it has to have exposure to the sun to bake and harden the surface. Due to our horrible summer this wasn't able to happen and we got the minefields that you and everyone else saw.

I think it's about time that Indian fans stop blaming the pitches and admit they were bested. After all, in seven of the nine internationals, NZ scored more runs than the Indians did - simple as that.
 

Tim

Cricketer Of The Year
Im also tired of hearing constant whining about the pitches during the NZ/India series...sure they were poor, but NZ weren't exactly doing much better than India.

If you look at the scorecards, NZ was even bowled out for less than India in their 1st innings at Wellington I think.
If India had stopped worrying about the pitches, it could have easily have been 2-0 to India in that series.
Im absolutely certain a more professional side like Australia or South Africa would have won 2-0 but NZ were in no great shakes during that series.
 

Langeveldt

Soutie
prithvi said:
yep- on that, i would agree. its been a while since england has produced a quality cricketer who would put fear in the opposition. the recent 'greats' of eng cricket include alec stewart and nasser hussein, both of whom average less than 40 in test cricket. and there doesnt seem to be anyone in the horizon, other than flintoff and maybe, vaughan to an extent, who can lift eng out of this mess.

i think its going to take atleast 6-7 years for eng to be competitive in test cricket again - and im talking abt being competitive with the best - aus, SA and india. england can forget the ashes for a long long time !!

Yeah id agree to an extent... England is full of test standard cricketers, but it seems there is something entrenched in the cricketing culture which stops a world beater emerging.. I just cant see where the next Botham/Gooch/Laker/Boycott/Hobbs is going to come from... Id like to be proved very wrong though...
 

Craig

World Traveller
Tim said:
Im also tired of hearing constant whining about the pitches during the NZ/India series...sure they were poor, but NZ weren't exactly doing much better than India.

If you look at the scorecards, NZ was even bowled out for less than India in their 1st innings at Wellington I think.
If India had stopped worrying about the pitches, it could have easily have been 2-0 to India in that series.
Im absolutely certain a more professional side like Australia or South Africa would have won 2-0 but NZ were in no great shakes during that series.
And the fact India's selectors werent using their brains and left Srinath back in India.
 

shankar

International Debutant
Hard Harry said:
I think it's about time that Indian fans stop blaming the pitches and admit they were bested. After all, in seven of the nine internationals, NZ scored more runs than the Indians did - simple as that.
I think you mean 5 out of 7 ODI's. Out of the 7 ODIs the team, which lost the toss and had to bat first,lost the match in 6 of the matches. The only match in which this didnt happen was the 2'nd ODI played on a decent pitch on which the score crossed 200.I think that says something abt. the quality of the pitches.
 

shankar

International Debutant
Craig said:
And the fact India's selectors werent using their brains and left Srinath back in India.
They obviously didnt want to overwork him before the WC. He did play in the ODIs. If they had dropped him thinking he wouldnt perform,then that would be not using their brains.
 

cbuts

International Debutant
last season the test were played to early, both before christams. nz best months are traditionally jan feb march although you wouldnt know it this year - wetest january since 1896 (in wellington) and already in february we have had 220 mills of rain, the average is 67 mils. the record is 240, and its ****ing down as i write this - so it dosent look like we will get a pitch of an quality for the ODI on friday as we are due for a another southerly.

nz groundsmen showed what they can do , nz V pak in welly ODI and the christchurch pitch used for the state shield final and the SOO, they just need nature on their side
 

prithvi

Cricket Spectator
Langeveldt said:
Yeah id agree to an extent... England is full of test standard cricketers, but it seems there is something entrenched in the cricketing culture which stops a world beater emerging.. I just cant see where the next Botham/Gooch/Laker/Boycott/Hobbs is going to come from... Id like to be proved very wrong though...
well - u're in for a long wait - for u to be proved wrong, ie.
 

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