ICC Match Referee rates Rawalpindi pitch as "below average” & gives venue one demerit point

[MenInG]

ICC Match Referee rates Rawalpindi pitch as "below average” & gives venue one demerit point

Ranjan Madugalle of the Emirates ICC Elite Panel of Match Referees has rated the pitch at the Pindi Cricket Stadium in Rawalpindi that was used for the first Test between Pakistan and Australia as “below average” and the venue has received one demerit point under the ICC Pitch and Outfield Monitoring Process.

Madugalle said: “The character of the pitch hardly changed over the course of five days and that there has been no deterioration apart from the bounce getting slightly lower. The pitch did not have a great deal of pace and bounce in it for the seamers nor assisted the spinners as the match progressed. In my view this does not represent an even contest between bat and ball. Therefore, in keeping with the ICC guidelines I rate this pitch as below average.”

Mr. Madugalle’s report has been forwarded to the Pakistan Cricket Board.

 

[MenInG]

Hope PCB happy now! How silly was this.

 

[Kianig89]

Thankfully it was only below average not substandard

 

[Rana]

Hun Araam eh PCB!

 

[princeuk]

Kya yaar? Another suncontinent side prepare rank turners from day one and the pitch stays the same throughout but thats a fair contest between bat n ball isnt it?

 

[Rana]

I remember how Ramiz Raja was boasting about how ‘ab aik cricketer Chairman ban gaya hai’!

First Test at home under Ramiz and PCB fails monumentally!

 

[Rana]

Pakistan produced some of the worst tracks in the 2006 series against India too. Only Karachi was acceptable

 

[Major]

Cricket came back to Pakistan in a very difficult manner, and Rameez Raja is now trying to get stadiums banned..

 

[Saj]

I don't think the Chairman's comments helped the matter.

Who knows, maybe PCB might have got away with it, but then the Chairman had to give his version of why the track was a road.

 

[Amjid Javed]

Pakistan produced some of the worst tracks in the 2006 series against India too. Only Karachi was acceptable

Spot on, we cant have these huge scoring bore draws, its not a balanced game.

 

[Amjid Javed]

I don't think the Chairman's comments helped the matter.

Who knows, maybe PCB might have got away with it, but then the Chairman had to give his version of why the track was a road.

Ramiz should keep his foot in his mouth, we dont need any more idiotic statements from him.

 

[sweep_shot]

Not surprised at this.

Pitch was way too flat.

 

[ChipShot]

Congrats Ramiz, trying to Nullify Starc and co, he's nullified (frustrated) so many other people as well, including ICC Match Referee.

On the top of that, he and Imam had an audacity to defend the pitch

 

[topspin]

ICC have been kind to rate this below average. It's substandard.

 

[James]

Maybe a touch lucky to get away with this pitch “just” being rated below average to be honest.

 

[Third Man]

Below average is an understatment. Ramiz says he wasn't going to give a bouncy and fast pitch to Australia. When has a Pakistani pitch ever been bouncy and fast? We just wanted a pitch you could get out on.

 

[Bilal Ahmad15]

Is 'below average' The worst rating possible that can be given?

 

[James]

Is 'below average' The worst rating possible that can be given?

Can also be rated Poor.

 

[Savak]

Double standards. The likes of Australia and South Africa make dangerous bouncy, pacy wickets where Subcontinent batters are preppered with bouncers with balls hitting the fingers. England produces green unplayable wickets and India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh produces rank turners which favours their spinners.

Why can't Pakistan prepare a track to neutralize Starc, Hazelwood, Cummins, Lyon? These guys carry so much hype but they looked toothless on that wicket whereas Afridi picked up two wickets and Nauman six wickets.

 

[Xoib]

Double standards. The likes of Australia and South Africa make dangerous bouncy, pacy wickets where Subcontinent batters are preppered with bouncers with balls hitting the fingers. England produces green unplayable wickets and India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh produces rank turners which favours their spinners.

Why can't Pakistan prepare a track to neutralize Starc, Hazelwood, Cummins, Lyon? These guys carry so much hype but they looked toothless on that wicket whereas Afridi picked up two wickets and Nauman six wickets.

Bhai there is a difference between a Pakistani traditional pitch and this farce why do we have to go for extreme just because you don't want to give WACA 2.0 to Australia does not mean you serve this a normal Pakistani pitch that aids spin and reverse swing will do

 

[ARK Rafay]

This could have been easily rated poor and gotten more demerit points. Match referee has been kind here.

 

[ARK Rafay]

Is 'below average' The worst rating possible that can be given?

No. Pitches are rated as;
Very Good, Good, Average, Below Average, Poor, Unfit.

You can find data and history of all pitch ratings here;
https://www.icc-cricket.com/about/cricket/rules-and-regulations/pitch-ratings

 

[MenInG]

Imam-ul-Haq in his presser about the pitch:

"Obviously when it’s a five-day Test everyone anticipates for a result. But when we go to Australian conditions, they don’t make pitches consulting us but make it according to their will so I think we should see our strength and should live up to our strength"

“I think the Rawalpindi Test was played well as we managed to get all 10 wickets"

“Unfortunately 70 overs were not played out due to bad light and rain but had those overs been bowled the result could have been different because we intended to make them bat again"

 

[mon858]

Imam made a good point about the 70 overs loss.
Also Mohammed Yusuf mentioned that pitch not being baked in sun those days also didn't help plus aus took heavy roller. Otherwise 5th day it should have broken more and taken turn.

We could have put them under lot of pressure on last day with a target of anything 375 plus.

 

[James]

Double standards. The likes of Australia and South Africa make dangerous bouncy, pacy wickets where Subcontinent batters are preppered with bouncers with balls hitting the fingers. England produces green unplayable wickets and India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh produces rank turners which favours their spinners.

Why can't Pakistan prepare a track to neutralize Starc, Hazelwood, Cummins, Lyon? These guys carry so much hype but they looked toothless on that wicket whereas Afridi picked up two wickets and Nauman six wickets.

No double standard. The pitch rating criteria is clear and publicly available. It is based on good carry, moderate seam movement, consistent bounce, steady deterioration which brings the spin bowlers into the game later on, and the overall resilience and conduciveness of the pitch towards producing a competitive match and decisive result across five days of entertaining cricket. The Pindi wicket was (rightly) adjudged to have failed on the vast majority of these metrics, hence the below average rating.

 

[Zaz]

Imam-ul-Haq in his presser about the pitch:

"Obviously when it’s a five-day Test everyone anticipates for a result. But when we go to Australian conditions, they don’t make pitches consulting us but make it according to their will so I think we should see our strength and should live up to our strength"

“I think the Rawalpindi Test was played well as we managed to get all 10 wickets"

“Unfortunately 70 overs were not played out due to bad light and rain but had those overs been bowled the result could have been different because we intended to make them bat again"

This is absurd from imam Maybe he feels everyone criticising the pitch lowers the value of his runs and he needs to defend it

Nobody saying dont tailor the pitches but bhai at least produce a pitch with something in it for our bowlers

We nullied not only only their bowlers but ours too

Pakistan put on 700 odd for 4 wkts in the match and no pakistan wkts fell on the final day with it not breaking up at all And they didnt declare having a crack at the aussies because they knew it was so flat

These guys are living in cuckkoo land if they think.an extra 70 overs wouldve produced a result

 

[Cric1234]

Cricket came back to Pakistan in a very difficult manner, and Rameez Raja is now trying to get stadiums banned..

Misbah turned us into minnows outside Asia and now Ramiz is fearful of home losses the whole of Pakistan cricket is timid and mediocre no aggression no planning the same mistakes repeated again.

 

[PakPremi]

Pitches are poor if they are dangeeous or unplayable, how can a good batting pitch be rated below standard. Truth is there was no world class bowlers to take pitch out of equation, and batsmen played too slowly especially the Pakistani batsmen, and then a lot of time was lost due to rain and bad light. If current top four cricketing nation produced a deadpitch no way any refree would have given them any penalties.

 

[RedwoodOriginal]

Thank you Ramiz.

Keep making a fool of yourself and soon enough you will have one less venue to host cricket in.

 

[HitWicket]

This seems a generous rating given the MCG got a worse rating for their 2017 test pitch.

 

[MenInG]

As per media reports, PCB have accepted ICC decision on the pitch:

“We note and accept the ICC’s decision. This is the first time any Pakistan venue has received a demerit point. The PCB wants to see and prepare pitches that provide even and the exciting contest between the bat and the ball"

“The PCB remains confident and optimistic that we will not only see good contests in the Karachi and Lahore Tests but in all future domestic, international matches as well"

 

[Mesozoic]

Actually got lucky here. Could easily have been rates as poor.

 

[Mesozoic]

If current top four cricketing nation produced a deadpitch no way any refree would have given them any penalties.

Ughhh here it comes again...

Here you go...

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...0QFnoECAQQAQ&usg=AOvVaw00RKoOmhUa6ShH-jmnD4XZ


Is Australia a "top four cricketing nation"?

 

[James]

Pitches are poor if they are dangeeous or unplayable, how can a good batting pitch be rated below standard. Truth is there was no world class bowlers to take pitch out of equation, and batsmen played too slowly especially the Pakistani batsmen, and then a lot of time was lost due to rain and bad light. <b>If current top four cricketing nation produced a deadpitch no way any refree would have given them any penalties</b>.

Factually incorrect.

 

[WhenSultansBowled]

It was atrocious. Lucky escape. Deserved a harder punishment.

 

[cricketjoshila]

Seems ICC is ok with pitches that produce results and are not dangerous.

 

[boomboomcheema]

Stadiums with such pitches should be handed out a ban for a certain period , wasted 5 days of fans.

 

[mazkhan]

Pitches like this kill test cricket

If there is no balance between bat and ball then don't bother with test cricket.

 

[MenInG]

As per media reports, PCB have accepted ICC decision on the pitch:

“We note and accept the ICC’s decision. This is the first time any Pakistan venue has received a demerit point. The PCB wants to see and prepare pitches that provide even and the exciting contest between the bat and the ball"

“The PCB remains confident and optimistic that we will not only see good contests in the Karachi and Lahore Tests but in all future domestic, international matches as well"

PCB should just accept and move on instead of having a last word on this

 

[Kraetoz]

A pitch where Fawad Alam didn't even get a chance to play a single dot ball should be banned.

 

[Buffet]

Imam-ul-Haq in his presser about the pitch:

"Obviously when it’s a five-day Test everyone anticipates for a result. But when we go to Australian conditions, they don’t make pitches consulting us but make it according to their will so I think we should see our strength and should live up to our strength"

“I think the Rawalpindi Test was played well as we managed to get all 10 wickets"

“Unfortunately 70 overs were not played out due to bad light and rain but had those overs been bowled the result could have been different because we intended to make them bat again"

In the last 20-30 years,

The Last 17 games in Aus when Pakistan visited had results.

In the last 9 games in Pakistan when Aus visited, only 2 had results.

No need to consult Aus, just make the pitch that helps the home team and have the pitch which can produce results. There is no comparison with Aus pitches. They are not dead pitches otherwise we wouldn't have seen the last 17 tests having results.

 

[wrongun]

Got off lightly, the pitch was "poor" in my book.

If IK felt the need to comment harshly on it, you know it was bad.

 

[MenInG]

So nothing learnt from the past?

 

[Rana]

Hopefully it receives another demerit point and eventually cancelled as a venue

Nothing exciting about this venue at all.

Poor pitch
Poor seating (outlook)
Poor lighting

 

[Nikhil_cric]

Struggling to think of a more useless pitch in recent times.

And that's in addition to the subpar drainage at the ground

Such pitches are a disgrace to Test (where 40 wickets won't fall even after 450 overs)

 

[offstump]

Last year’s Pindi pitch was far, far worse.

 

[mominsaigol]

Struggling to think of a more useless pitch in recent times.

And that's in addition to the subpar drainage at the ground

Such pitches are a disgrace to Test (where 40 wickets won't fall even after 450 overs)

Ireland: Hold my school boy pitch powa.

But Jokes aside excluding minnows, Pindi is defo the worst.

 

[ExpressPacer]

@Nikhil_cric

Probably but the PCB is genuinely trying to make a difference this time around. They’ve got a top Australian curator who’s helping to curate the pitches but he just hasn’t had enough time to do the Pindi one before the first game. I expect things to improve.

Another thing is though that they start the Test at almost midday which quite frankly is too late in the day. Since Pakistan doesn’t have daylight savings, 10 PM is effectively 12 PM or 12:30 PM, which is also why 90% of Pindi tests never make it to close of day and we lose overs - even in the summer. By this late in the day, the pitch usually gets baked and is flatter than it would already be.

 

[offstump]

Someone call Ramiz Raja I think he has a drop in pitch in storage somewhere

 

[Nikhil_cric]

@Nikhil_cric

Probably but the PCB is genuinely trying to make a difference this time around. They’ve got a top Australian curator who’s helping to curate the pitches but he just hasn’t had enough time to do the Pindi one before the first game. I expect things to improve.

Another thing is though that they start the Test at almost midday which quite frankly is too late in the day. Since Pakistan doesn’t have daylight savings, 10 PM is effectively 12 PM or 12:30 PM, which is also why 90% of Pindi tests never make it to close of day and we lose overs - even in the summer. By this late in the day, the pitch usually gets baked and is flatter than it would already be.

This is another issue. India starts Test matches at 9:30 am and we absolutely get 90 overs in for every day of a Test match.

Pakistan really need to go for that. The format is struggling and the least PCB can do is make sure we have the best chance of a result.