Rohit Sharma plays a shot on the first day of the second Test cricket match between India and South Africa, at the Newlands Cricket Ground, in Cape Town, South Africa, Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2024.
Credit: PTI Photo
Newlands: “As long as everyone keeps their mouth shut when they come to India, we are fine with any conditions we are asked to play on.”
When Indian skipper Rohit Sharma started the post-match press conference after India’s historic win on this note, you knew he had a fair bit to say and why he had to say it. Not much later, you also knew who had this to say to.
Having been part of the shortest Test in cricket history, Rohit eventually expressed how glad he was that his side had finally breached the Newlands fortress, but before getting into that, he drove right into what the International Cricket Council’s idea of a ‘good’ pitch is.
He had an agenda and he wasn’t going to stop short of speaking his mind.
“We all saw what happened in this Test and how the pitch played,” he said. “I honestly don’t mind playing on pitches like this. Yes, it is dangerous, it is challenging. When they come to India, it’s challenging as well. So when you play Test cricket, speaking of it as an ultimate challenge and the pinnacle and so on, you should stand by your words.”
“You should come and face it. In India, if the ball starts turning on day one, they start saying ‘oh, it’s a dust bowl, oh, it has cracks.’ I think the match referees need to stay neutral. They need to keep their eyes open and rate pitches properly.”
India coach Rahul Dravid had launched into the ICC’s pitch ratings during the World Cup because the referees had doled out two ‘average’ ratings to surfaces in Chennai and Ahmedabad.
The pitch at the Narendra Modi stadium, which hosted the World Cup final between India and Australia, was also rated ‘average’ in the days which followed.
Andy Pycroft was the match referee in that instance, and you always have Englishman Chris Broad going after pitches in the subcontinent.
“… I still can’t believe the World Cup final pitch was rated ‘average’. How can that be a poor pitch, one guy (Travis Head) even scored a century. The ICC and the referees need to start looking into it. They need to base pitches on how they see it and not based on countries (hinting at a bias). I am all for pitches like this, we pride ourselves playing on pitches like this, all I want to say is be neutral,” said Rohit.
What the Mumbaikar actually meant by ‘neutral’ was that he wanted referees to be ‘uniform’ in their assessment and subsequent ranking of pitches.
“I would like to see how this pitch has been rated. I want to see it now. I want to see the chart, I want to know how they rate pitches,” he thundered. “See, every pitch is different, even within the same country, every pitch has its own flavour. You also need to realise that some pitches deteriorate faster than others because of overhead conditions. But if the ball turns from day one, people don’t like it. If the ball seams from ball one, that’s okay…
“If you want the ball only to seam and not turn, it’s wrong. I have seen enough of cricket now, I have seen enough of how these match referees look into these ratings, I have no issues with how they want to asses these pitches, but they have to be neutral (aka uniform).”
Shukri Conrad, the South African coach, wasn’t too concerned about ratings for the moment. He was more concerned about the very fabric on which the format is built.
“This pitch was so out of character. I don’t know what to say… it's a sad state of affairs when you, as a batter, need more luck than skill to survive. I think all the ethics and the values of Test cricket go out the window on pitches like this,” he said, head down for the most part.
“I think we have lost batsmanship because of T20 cricket, and frankly, this (this match) was not cricket. This was about the pitch and the pitch alone. I mean credit to India for a superb win, but this isn’t Test cricket. It's a shame.”