Principles and practice of pitch preparation Part 1

1. INTRODUCTION

A recent survey undertaken by the above team has shown that the quality of Provincial pitches varies considerably. Their pace, after preparation for four day matches, varied from medium to very slow, their bounce from medium to low and their consistency from reasonably consistent to very inconsistent. The same pattern is likely to be found among club and school pitches.

To overcome this problem the UCB has decided to put a help-line in place to assist groundsmen with their problems. Two teams (one at Potchefstroom University for the inland pitches and one at Natal University, Pietermaritzburg, for the coastal pitches, have been nominated to do this). It is hoped that these two teams will be able to assist in the following ways:

• give a series of seminars to groundsmen;

• visit each of the Provincial groundsmen for discussions on any problems they may have;

• search for a source of good quality bulli for each of the Provinces; and

• provide the Provincial groundsmen with the necessary equipment to measure the bounce and pace of their pitches and to correctly sample their pitches for any laboratory tests which they would like undertaken. Clubs might be able to negotiate with the Provincial groundsmen for the use of this testing equipment.

Any groundsmen would be free to contact either of the teams for advice, but any costs associated with any such action (beyond those listed above) would need to be borne by the Province or the clubs involved. Addresses are given at the back of this document.

It needs to be said at the start that, in pitch preparation, there may be any number of ways of reaching a particular goal. All groundsmen are likely to have developed their own particular procedures with which they may be entirely satisfied. Indeed, if the testing procedures which will be referred to later in this document show that they are consistently producing pitches which meet their particular goals, then there is presumably no need for them to change the procedures they are using. What we intend to do in this seminar, however, is to stimulate discussion among the groundsmen and to encourage groundsmen to think about what they are doing by providing them with the basic principles governing pitch behaviour. An understanding of the principles behind a good pitch will, we are sure, add a great deal of job satisfaction to the task of preparing a good cricket wicket. We hope you all find the seminar helpful and, above all, stimulating and we hope that you will all involve yourselves fully in our discussions.

2. WHAT DO WE SEE AS BEING A GOOD PITCH?

We may all have different ideas on how an ideal pitch should behave (depending perhaps on the bowling strengths of our side at any time) and the ideal pitch will vary according to the duration of the intended game. We need to define what we want before we can set down our procedures. For the purposes of this seminar, we define an ideal pitch as follows:

For a four or five day game

Day 1:

The pitch should be quite moist, with some green grass on the surface (not all will agree with this, as in the Australian examples which will be discussed later). A green surface will allow the ball to seam around a bit (later we will explain why greenness promotes this movement). The pitch should have consistent pace and bounce.

Days 2 & 3:

The pitch will have dried out and should become more bouncy and it should quicken up (provided it does not crack badly by becoming too dry too quickly). It will have lost its greenness and so should not seam around much. The ball should come nicely onto the bat and the pitch should now be ideal for batting.

Day 4:

The surface should start to powder and the cracks will start to open up. This will slow the pitch down. It will become less bouncy, the bounce will become more inconsistent and it will start to take spin.

[Day 5:

The above pattern will be accentuated as the pitch wears further.]

For a one day limited-overs game

The general requirement here is for a pitch which will favour the batsmen. The ideal would be to produce a pitch equivalent to that on the second or third day of a five day game (described above) but of course without the wear. This suggests that water should be withheld for one to two days longer than for a five day game to allow it to dry out for a day or two longer.

For one and two day club games

Since such games are seldom limited overs games and do not have a contrived result, the pitch here would need to have more life than that for a one day limited overs game. This could be achieved in a number of ways, such as by deliberately producing a green-top or a spinners wicket (hopefully not by having to resort to sprinkling bulli dust over the pitch to promote this). We hope to explain how such pitches can be produced later during this seminar.