Wickets falling in a heap, and the subsequent folding up of the Ranji Trophy match between Assam and Rajasthan in just three-days last week at Dr. Y.S. Rajaeswara Reddy ACA–VDCA cricket stadium at Visakhapatnam, was just a one-off incident, according to the BCCI curator K. Sriram.
Sriram, who was at Vizag for an inspection, said that there were no devils in the pitch and gave a go-ahead to the ODI and Test fixtures to be held on October 29 and November 17-21 respectively.
“I think this issue is over-hyped. Last year at Dindigul, a first class match got over in two days. A few days ago at Lahli more than 17 wickets fell. These incidents don’t mean that the pitch is bad or substandard, ” said the curator from Bengaluru.
Meanwhile, the ACA vice president G.J.J. Raju said the reason for the ball keeping low was primarily due to covering the strip with polyethylene cover for more than a month because of continuous rain. “We took just four days to prepare the pitch for the first Ranji Match and the match went on well for all four days with proper bounce,” said Raju.
Raju also added that the local curator, instead of using a heavy roller, used the light one which prevented the compaction of the soil.
“I will return to Vizag in two days to oversee the pitch preparation until the ODI staged,” said Sriram.
