After Pakistan’s Rawalpindi Stadium ICC rates the pitch of an Indian Stadium as ‘Below Average’
In the most interesting news of the day, the pitch of M. Chinnaswami for the second test between India and Sri Lanka has been rated as ‘below average’ by ICC. The hosts India ended up winning the match convincingly and sealed the series by a 2-0 margin, whitewashing the visitors completely.
The fact that the pitch was causing problems to the batsmen could be understood from the very first innings. Virat Kohli’s dismissal in both the innings is the best example to explain it. On both occasions, Kohli expected the ball to rise up but it didn’t and he was LBW’ed. We can thus understand how tricky the wicket was.
Match umpire Javagal Srinath explained the pitch as, “The pitch offered a lot of turn on the first day itself and though it improved with every session, in my view, it was not an even contest between the bat and ball.”
But will happen now that the Chinnaswami stadium has been rated Below Average by ICC?
Well, according to ICC’s rules, “If a pitch or outfield is rated as being substandard, that venue will be allocated a number of demerit points.”
“One demerit point will be awarded to venues whose pitches are rated by the match referees as below average, while three and five demerit points will be awarded to venues whose pitches are marked as poor and unfit, respectively.”
“No demerit point will be awarded when the outfield is rated as below average, but two and five demerit points will be awarded to venues whose outfields are marked as poor and unfit, respectively.”
It is very ironic because when a few days ago the Rawalpindi pitch for the first Test between Pakistan and Australia was deemed below average by ICC, the Indian fans started trolling Pakistan Cricket Board for not being able to allot a good stadium for such an important match. Unfortunately, an Indian fate has now met the same fate.
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