When a five-day cricket match ends in less than two days, it leaves no place to save face. Rather, it makes us question the future of the game. Questions such as whether it is a good example of test cricket, which for years has attracted millions of people to the stadium to make cricket one of the most popular sports in the world, are bound to be raised. Allegations about the standard of the pitch and cricketing skills of the 22 players on the field, will be judged closely. Administrators of the game will not be able to evade the question of whether commercialisation is a boon or bane for cricket. Serious doubts will be expressed over the use of pink ball in test matches. Above all, the International Cricket Council (ICC) should answer whether such games can be considered a part of World Test Championships?
Among the questions which should be answered first is about doctoring the pitch. It’s a common practice that the host nations prepare the pitches according to their strength. Thus, while one has to face fast and bouncy pitches in Australia, England or South Africa, the spinning track welcomes the visitors in Indian sub-continent. But there is a difference between a turning track and an underprepared pitch. The pitch in Motera is in question as it started crumbling even before a ball was bowled. It is indicative enough that the pitch was left underprepared to help the home team as its main strength was spin bowling. To negate the criticism for doctoring the pitch, it is now being said that the extra lacquer on the pink ball made the pitch unplayable. But it is nothing but an excuse. The pink ball does move a little extra during twilight, but it never helped the spinners significantly in earlier day-night test matches. Another argument is that traditional weakness of the English batsmen made the test a no contest. But this argument appears to be an attempt to shield the person responsible for making the pitch. The scoreboard will show that it was not only the English batsmen, who struggled to be in the wicket, Indian batsmen too suffered. The pitch was so unplayable that on the second day morning, a mere part-time bowler like England Captain Joe Root captured five wickets conceding just nine runs.
There is no denying that the pitch finished cricket in the grandiose stadium. This test match may be remembered for various reasons, but not for cricket. At the same time, it is not right to judge the class of players based on their performances in this test match. Rather, we have to focus on the bigger picture. It will be unfair to blame India only for doctoring the pitches to suit its purposes. All the cricket playing nations indulge in such practice. So, it is high time that ICC take the responsibility of preparing the pitches in different venues all over the world into their own hands to save cricket and to restore its image as a gentleman’s game.
