Reports | BCCI wants spin friendly wickets in domestic cricket

According to a report in TOI, the Indian cricket board has decided to do away from its policy of preparing green and seaming pitches during the domestic tournaments in the country. As the Indian batsmen have struggled against spinners in both Indian and foreign conditions, the board have now directed the curators to prepare pitches with more turn during the domestic tournaments. For almost eight years, India had emphasised on pitches having something for the seamers to help the Indian batsmen get used to facing the moving ball.

“The curators were clearly told about the problems Indian batsmen are facing against Moeen Ali. Names like former English spinners Jeremy Snape and James Tredwell were also taken as references,” a BCCI official close to the development told TOI.

“Videos of Nathan Lyon bowling on Australian pitches were studied. If a finger-spinner like Lyon could extract turn from Day Two on those bouncy, seamer-friendly pitches, then Indian pitches too could have that balance.” 

The board had the aim of preparing pitches with more grass cover on it and that could start turning during the final session of the third day’s play. A system of neutral curators preparing pitches was also implemented during the Ranji Trophy matches to prevent doctoring of the pitches as per the requirement of the home team.

 “The brief has always been the same — produce result-oriented pitches. This year, the curators have been told not to be shy of providing spinning tracks,” the official said.

As per the newspaper organisation, former India coach Anil Kumble had raised concerns in this regard when he was the chairman of the BCCI’s technical committee.