The reprimand and potentially, further sanctions for the Galle pitch are not entirely unexpected. This after the ICC match referee Chris Broad had rated the track as poor in his report to the ICC, which means that the ICC could end up levying a fine and recommending corrective action to the Galle authorities for the pitch.
Galle Pitch Labelled Poor, As ICC Continues To Pitch For Belters
The Galle track was reported by the match referee as a poor one and will now have to face sanctions or heavy fines. The question is whether the ICC understands that the fans love these kind of surfaces.
Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting had already likened the pitch to the one that they played on in Mumbai in 2004, where the game had last for less than two and a half days, while skipper Michael Clarke conceded that they had been lucky to win the toss.
The question that will, however, keep reverberating amongst the fans, is why is such a track, which assists the slower bowler from the very beginning a poor pitch while that which ends with the teams barely being able to complete their first innings considered a good one?
In the last Ashes, the first Test at Brisbane saw England being bowled out for 260, before Australia replied with 481. So far, so good, one would say, but this was followed by England batting out 152 overs, losing one wicket and scoring more than 500 runs. Poor pitch? Certainly, to me, given that it hadn’t deteriorated as much as one would want from it. Poor bowling? Probably, but then, it was as much poor bowling as it has been poor batting at Galle.
I have yet to hear any sanctions against that Gabba track. And Gabba isn’t a solitary instance in recent times; there have been many of these pitches around where the game goes the full distance without three of the four innings being complete.
At the end of the game, Clarke also said, “If you speak to all the batters that's definitely one of the toughest wickets I've had to bat on in a Test match and that was on day one.”
Clearly, Clarke hasn’t been talking too much to his bowlers. Because one can rest assure that they would be complaining after every other game about the nature of pitches – flat, hard and tailor-made to allow the batsmen and broadcasters to have some fun.
Incidentally, the Galle pitch seemed to have played at its worst on the second day when the Sri Lankan side collapsed to 105 all out. This was followed by scores of 210 and 253 in the third and the fourth innings of the game – a sure sign of progressive improvement in the pitch.
It is time that the ICC take a survey among the Test cricket fans (and not those who consider T20 and ODIs as a better format than the Tests) to understand the ground realities. Chances are that Galle could rank as one of the better pitches for the fans.
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