A tale of two Motera surfaces

“The pitch I prepared in 1983 wasn’t good because I didn’t have time to prepare it, but this pitch was really bad,” Dhiraj Parsana tells DH when asked about the quality of the surface prepared for the day/night Test between India and England at the Narendra Modi stadium in Motera.

Anshuman Gaekwad, who was a prominent character in that game against the visiting West Indies in 1983, thought otherwise. The former Indian coach’s argument was that unlike that strip that had "potholes" in several places, the one that was used for the third Test wasn’t going to kill them.

"Their pace attack was (Malcolm) Marshall, (Michael) Holding, (Winston) Davis and (Wayne) Daniel,” remembers Gaekwad. “They also had Larry (Gomes) but I don’t think he bowled too many overs. He didn’t have to. Those four guys nearly killed us on that pitch.

“Actually, when I was batting, I think I batted the most in terms of time spent at the crease, Sir Viv (Richards) and some of the others were asking me why I want to risk my life on this pitch between deliveries. It was intimidating. What happened now in Ahmedabad and also in the Chennai Test was nothing like that match. I can’t believe they’re blaming the pitch for horrible batting across two Tests,” he rues.

Parsana delved into another angle to address concerns raised by some Englishmen saying that the problem was with curators and their inability to take responsibility for the pitches they prepare.

“Kapil (Dev) wasn’t at all happy with the pitch in 1983, he was livid, but I explained to him that we cannot remove the grass since the pitch will dry out too quickly. Also, we didn’t have good enough pitch mowers at the time,” says Parsana. “I had to stand my ground. I was not happy with the pitch either but I had two to three weeks to prepare it, so that’s the best I could do. The management had to come to terms with that.

“Now, curators are told what to do and without considering local conditions, which they should be more aware of, they prepare pitches. They should not have removed so much grass for this match. No wonder the match ended in two days. India might have a favourable result but it harms the game.”

Parsana knows a thing or two about the nature of the pitch at the Motera for he was the first curator installed by the late Polly Umrigar at the venue since its inception in 1982 until 2018. He also served as the BCCI's chief curator (West Zone) between 1997 and 2018.

"The soil for this pitch looked poor - half red soil and half black soil and too much clay," he says. "Also, you can’t apply the same techniques you used to before because weather conditions have changed tremendously because of global warming. So, you must account for heat before shaving the pitch. According to me, there should be more black soil (sugarcane soil) because it holds moisture better and cracks nicely."

When asked about what the characteristics of a good pitch are, Parsana said: "The pitch should have a hardness of three to four inches. There should be good density with minimum grass. The spinners should come into the equation on the second day and it should offer slow turn. On the third and fourth days, the ball should hurry a bit.”

According to Gaekwad, that’s exactly how the pitch would have played had the batsmen been good enough to make minor changes to their technique. "If they think this is bad, they should play on matting wickets, every ball is an event there," says the Mumbaikar. "We grew up on matting wickets, so we knew how to make adjustments when the ball would turn, bounce and also be prepared to play the straight ball that keeps low. It’s on the batsmen. Period."