IND vs BAN | Grass cover must for preventing dew factor, asserts Daljit Singh
Former BCCI chief curator Daljit Singh believes that it is very important to leave grass on the Eden Gardens wicket to prevent the pink-ball from getting muddy and slippery owing to the dew. India will be playing their first pink-ball Test against Bangladesh on November 22nd at the Eden Gardens.
BCCI President Sourav Ganguly has taken a significant step in revolutionizing Indian cricket by proposing a pink-ball Test against Bangladesh. The proposal was accepted by the board and both the teams are set to play the day and night test at the Eden Gardens. This will be the twelfth instance of pink-ball Test being played but will be the first one in the winter season. The winters in Kolkata bring dew with them. This can cause the ground to be slippery and the pink ball to get dirty and may cause a lot of problems for the bowlers to grip the ball. Former BCCI chief curator believes that India should follow what Australia did in their first-ever pink-ball Test against New Zealand at Adelaide by leaving grass on the wicket so that it would help the bowlers and would negate the dew factor.
“When Adelaide hosted the first-ever pink-ball fixture in 2015, they had an 11mm grass cover. That’s unheard of in India. But here too, we need to keep bigger grass content so that the ball doesn’t become dirty easily,” Daljit told Sportstar.
Daljit being a curator himself knows that it takes a lot of time to grow that amount of grass and maintain it on a wicket and thus believes that the ground staff has very little time and that the work should begin immediately. Vastly experienced, Daljit was the curator during the 2017 Duleep Trophy matches where the pink ball was used and he had prepared wickets with 6 mm grass cover that proved to be good enough to provide equal contest between bat and ball.
“It is important to have tall grasses and also you need to culture them. And this takes time. It won’t happen overnight. The preparation must start from tomorrow itself,” Daljit revealed.
“It’s not even a month. So, the process has to start fast," he further added.
The outfield is as important as the wicket. The ball will race across the outfield and if there is dew, chances are that the ball will get wet easily. Daljit expressed his concern in this regard and believes that appropriate measures need to be taken.
“The thicker the grass, more the dew. So, the outfield grass has to be pruned and mowed from time to time. It cannot be thick. The curators need to ensure that the grass is low on the outfield. That’s a must,” he asserted.
Prior to Ganguly's appointment, BCCI has a poor image as being a board that was run more by bureaucrats and politicians. But Ganguly has begun his stint as the President on a really positive note and Daljit is extremely happy about the pink-ball revolution that he has brought with him. He assures full support to Ganguly from him and his former colleagues.
“It is a bold step taken by Sourav. He is not afraid of trying out new things and it will be good for the game. I will speak to my old colleagues and guide them as and when required,” he concluded.
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