BCCI asks curators to prepare pitches to help spinners from Day 3 of Ranji ties

Harbhajan Singh's return to the Indian team after a two-year hiatus highlights the dearth of quality upcoming spinners in the country, forcing the national selectors to fall back on the 34-year-old.

And that was one of the focal points of BCCI's annual curators and groundsmen workshop on June 11 and 12. The Board's clear diktat to various curators was to prepare wickets that would help spinners from the third day of a four-day Ranji Trophy game.

Various topics were discussed in the two-day seminar in Mumbai - starting from the use of appropriate rollers, keeping in mind the soil used to prepare the pitch, to how more machinery can be employed to improve the conditions of grounds and pitches. But the highlight of the event was the insistence on ensuring that the current style of preparing pacerfriendly wickets is replaced by preparing surfaces that will bring spinners into the game.

"The seminar included even curators from non-international venues and various matters were discussed. Curators were told how various rollers affect various wickets in different ways depending on the type of soil content and also how a more scientific approach should be followed. But the major point was to do away with wickets that tilt the balance completely in favour of medium pacers," a senior curator told Mail Today.

"In the last couple of seasons, it is the fast bowlers who have ruled the roost on the domestic circuit and the BCCI feels that it has created a negative impact on the mind of spinners and that has resulted in an adverse impact on the feeder line of quality spinners. So we have been told that every aspect of the game needs to be touched and while the wicket should help pacers on the first day, spinners should come into the game by the third."

From a time when India produced the best spinners and Indian batsmen were known to be the best players of spin, a situation has come when the country hasn't produced many quality spinners in the last few years. In fact, even in this year's list of wicket-takers in the Ranji Trophy, the top nine slots are occupied by medium pacers.

In fact, Harbhajan made his displeasure pretty clear during the season when he said the current pitches make mediocre bowlers look like the legendary Malcolm Marshall.

Kotla surface earns praise

The wicket at the Ferozeshah Kotla has been known to play low and slow ever since one can remember. Every time the curators or the association are questioned, they have preferred to pass the buck. But all that has changed with current curator Ankit Datta, and the BCCI recognised his efforts at the recent seminar of curators and groundsmen.

A senior curator said that just as Datta was gearing up for a presentation on the Duleep Trophy final played at the Kotla, BCCI's pitches and grounds committee chairman Daljit Singh praised the youngster for providing good surfaces right through the domestic season.

"Datta was to showcase a presentation on the Duleep Trophy final in which both teams had praised the Kotla wicket when Daljit took the opportunity to congratulate him on the terrific job he did last season. Not only did the chairman praise him for Kotla producing results in the four Ranji Trophy games, but also for preparing sporting wickets during the Indian Premier League," the curator told Mail Today.

"In fact, even as the BCCI is talking about preparing wickets that assist spinners in the later stages of a game, one must take note of the fact that 29 wickets were picked by spinners in that match at the Kotla. He is one of the few youngsters in the set-up and a lot depends on the likes of him to take Indian pitch preparation forward. Even during the IPL, he prepared quality wickets in the first four games and had the fifth game not seen a double-paced pitch, DDCA could well have got the award for the best wicket," he said.

Even BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur has promised all necessary help to the curators.

- By Baidurjo Bhose