Kotla Pitch Banned For One Year

[ShamiLoverGlipGlops]

The Feroz Shah Kotla has been banned by the ICC from hosting international matches for a year after an unsafe pitch led to the abandonment of an ODI between India and Sri Lanka in Delhi last month. The announcement quashes fears that the ban could extend up to the World Cup, scheduled to be held in the subcontinent in early 2011.
An ICC release said: "Following the conclusion of a full investigation into the circumstances that led to the abandonment of a one-day international match between India and Sri Lanka on 27 December 2009, the ICC confirms that no international cricket will be played at the New Delhi ground until the end of December 2010."
The ICC match referee Alan Hurst was reported to have classified the Kotla pitch used in that one-dayer as "unfit", the harshest possible assessment. The match had been called off after 23.3 overs during which Sri Lankan players received several blows due to severely varying bounce.
Dave Richardson, the ICC's general manager of cricket, explained the rationale behind the ban, which the world body arrived at after studying footage of the match, and based on reports from the match referee and the BCCI. "The frequency of the misbehaving deliveries [on average just more than one every three overs] - and the excessive degree of variation - had the potential to inflict serious injury to the batsmen," he said, "and that therefore the pitch that was prepared for the above match was 'dangerous' and should therefore be classified as 'unfit'."
The ICC's chief executive, Haroon Lorgat, was also certain that Delhi would get it's act together before the World Cup came along. "We are confident that there is ample time for the necessary remedial work to be carried out ahead of next year's World Cup," he said, "and it is important now that the work should be carried out and domestic cricket played on the pitch to make sure it returns to the standards required for high-level international cricket."
The problem with the Kotla pitch - which has already been relaid four times in the last five years under four different curators - stems from the decision, taken immediately after the second IPL was shifted to South Africa, to relay the entire square. Daljit Singh, the head of the BCCI's grounds and wickets committee until it was disbanded following the ODI debacle, had said in October that it would take a year for the relaid tracks to get seasoned.





Twelve-month ban for Kotla | Cricket News | ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 | Cricinfo.com

 

[SaiSrini]

Its a twelve month ban, not one month.

 

[SciD]

Enough time to produce a decent pitch for a change.

 

[AkshayS]

DDCA is responsible.
They should have tried it for domestic cricket.
So delhi boys now can't watch live matches in delhi now for one year.
sad news for me.

 

[aussie1st]

Nice to see action being taken on poorly produced pitches. Now to get rid of the roads that get produced.

 

[sifter132]

Great. I only saw the pitch in the Champions League but it was low and dead. You can't play ANY type of cricket on that, let alone T20.

 

[SaiSrini]

By the time the ban gets over, the Delhi pitch would have changed a lot. In fact I expect it to be far better than the roads that we have produced in recent times. I am guessing that the Delhi fiasco (and the comments from the Indian players about pitches like Ahmedabad) could be a blessing in disguise for all the pitches in the country.

 

[TumTum]

The strange thing is that when there is grass on the Indian pitches, it behaves like mad.

I think the best option is to leave them dry, but experiment with the hardness and clay content.

 

[aussie1st]

CA has told each curator to put more grass on the pitches and so far 5 out of the 6 pitches had this. Adelaide wasn't quite there but it almost produced a result. Hopefully BCCI will do something similar but in terms of their pitches.

 

[drainpipe32]

Good move this. In the long run, probably better for the Kotla.

 

[angryangy]

The strange thing is that when there is grass on the Indian pitches, it behaves like mad.

I think the best option is to leave them dry, but experiment with the hardness and clay content.

The Indian batsmen think they behave like mad. It's regulation first hour first morning stuff, usually against good bowlers, but not 10 wickets in 20 overs. I think they get a bit tangled up, like when the top order goes down, the middle order start to preconceive what the pitch is going to do, rather than focusing on each ball.

 

[BKB1991]

It seemed like an awful pitch in the CLT20. Extremely Flat tracks should get banned next

 

[rocky_g]

So will Delhi Daredevils play here in IPL 3?

 

[SaiSrini]

So will Delhi Daredevils play here in IPL 3?

The ban is only for international games. IPL is a domestic competition.