Thursday, 23 March 2006

Doctored pitches

Does it rile anyone else when an Indian writer claims that New Zealand Cricket doctors its pitches? Rearrange the following words - the, black, kettle, calling, pot. The reason I raise this now is because of this article about the decline of West Indian cricket in Sportstar. The tour to New Zealand should apparently have not been too intimidating, "...but what the Kiwis lacked in natural talent, they made up with dogged determination and doctored pitches." The author might have had a few good points to make, but as soon as I read that I lost all faith in their research and objectivity.

7 comments:

Ben said...

It's a huge dose of irony too, given that India's away record (0.3 wins per loss) makes a mockery of their home record (1.32).

Okay, so he was talking about the West Indies in New Zealand, but he was clearly referencing the last Indian tour here.

Karl said...

The pitches played on so far seem to be pretty good. It's just some bad batting (by both sides) that have let them down. The ODI pitches were much better than the ones that Shane Warne complained about last summer with the World XI.

Anonymous said...

in fact cricket needs more wickets like those in kiwiland...where mediocre FTBs get exposed!

india would obviously like pitches with lotsa paper on it coz that's where they play their best game.

yuveraj, dhonnyboy, sewag all are one trick ponies, tendy's past it.

Anonymous said...

I do not know conditions of pitches now but the last time india visited NZ those pitches were the worst. it made mumbai turner look like a good pitch

Anonymous said...

bichishort said...
in fact cricket needs more wickets like those in kiwiland...where mediocre FTBs get exposed!


then i beleive we need more mumbai turner pitches. it will expose the guys who can't play spin at all. And there are lots of them!

Anonymous said...

pam,
the point isnt about turning wkts or greentops--i say we need both of em to empower bowlers and disintegrate batters whose claims to fame rest solely upon on brittle ODI innings, like dhonnyboy &co.

and turner tracks are great--who's denied it? EVERY thriller i can rememeber have happened on turners- india- oz last winter most recently-what a game!!

infact on square turners, even pacers come into their own--like srinath did vs saffiesin ahmedabad in 1996-97.

the ONLY peoplewho oppose turners are TV companies, because matches finish on day3 and they cant make enuff money from TV sponsorships.

Stuart Helwig said...

What a joke! Kiwi's don't doctor pitches. Pitches in NZ do have their own character, just like everywhere else. Naturally Kiwi's learn to play on them. Doesn't mean they're doctored.

I suppose everyone is really agreeing with you Mike, but it is annoying to read, coming from this "pot" aye?