Pakistani pitch curators - Appreciation Thread

[MRSN]

so far they have produced some of the best pitches for PSL. It's surprising as pitches were very bad for Bangladesh T20 matches. Pitches like this makes games so much entertaining. so well done.

 

[Titan24]

Totally, pitches and outfield have been great.

 

[Rayyman]

Great stuff. Boundaries need to be longer in ODIs and Tests.

 

[MRSN]

Another brilliant track. Looks like they have done some good home work before PSL.

 

[trickyone]

This is what happens when you start bringing professionalism in the institute.

Thank you Wasim Khan

 

[minamino]

Don't know if it was a good pitch or just poor bowling. Some of the balls by Nawaz were shocking.

 

[shamaan]

It was a good pitch

 

[shah_1]

Great pitches

 

[aukhan]

Pitches have been great so far.

 

[Slim]

Fantastic pitches and outfields.

 

[Mamoon]

This is what happens when you start bringing professionalism in the institute.

Thank you Wasim Khan

You may as well give Wasim Khan credit for Pakistan’s Test status.

Pakistani pitches have always been like this in international cricket. These are nothing new.

 

[Canistani Hero]

You may as well give Wasim Khan credit for Pakistan’s Test status.

Pakistani pitches have always been like this in international cricket. These are nothing new.

Not true. Pakistani pitches have been extremely inconsistent in International cricket -- the pitches for Bangladesh T20's were just sad -- slow and low. We consistently need pacy, bouncy tracks to create a fair contest - Both Multan & Pindi tracks have been refreshing. Karachi and Lahore still need alot of work.

On a side note, Faisalabad during the NT20 was also a top job by the curators

 

[Mamoon]

Not true. Pakistani pitches have been extremely inconsistent in International cricket -- the pitches for Bangladesh T20's were just sad -- slow and low. We consistently need pacy, bouncy tracks to create a fair contest - Both Multan & Pindi tracks have been refreshing. Karachi and Lahore still need alot of work.

On a side note, Faisalabad during the NT20 was also a top job by the curators

Those farmer wickets for Bangladesh series were exceptions. Pakistani pitches are always batting friendly and that has been the case since the 90’s.

The Karachi leg of PSL had proper batting wickets in the early editions of PSL when Wasim Khan was working with ECB.

The first tour of Pakistan since 2009, the 2015 Zimbabwe tour, had proper roads as well with Pakistan scoring almost 400 in the first ODI with tuk tuk batsmen.

I understand that Wasim Khan is the flavor of the month and people want to give him credit for everything especially since he took over from the spawn of the devil called Najam Sethi, but let’s not be ridiculous and give him credit for things that he does not deserve.

 

[Hawkeye]

PAK pitches traditionally have been good for batting, unlike the UAE tracks.

They never had consistency though, and the PSL final in Lahore where Zalmi I think won, was a national shame! It was a really poor pitch, worse than UAE, so it was not all that good [MENTION=131701]Mamoon[/MENTION].

Consistency of the pitches this PSL has been top class, good batting surfaces throughout the tournament.

 

[Danyaalr01]

Those farmer wickets for Bangladesh series were exceptions. Pakistani pitches are always batting friendly and that has been the case since the 90’s.

The Karachi leg of PSL had proper batting wickets in the early editions of PSL when Wasim Khan was working with ECB.

The first tour of Pakistan since 2009, the 2015 Zimbabwe tour, had proper roads as well with Pakistan scoring almost 400 in the first ODI with tuk tuk batsmen.

I understand that Wasim Khan is the flavor of the month and people want to give him credit for everything especially since he took over from the spawn of the devil called Najam Sethi, but let’s not be ridiculous and give him credit for things that he does not deserve.

What about the pitches in the tests this year. Those were excellent pitches, some of the best I've seen in test cricket in a while in terms of balance between bat and ball.

 

[Danyaalr01]

PAK pitches traditionally have been good for batting, unlike the UAE tracks.

They never had consistency though, and the PSL final in Lahore where Zalmi I think won, was a national shame! It was a really poor pitch, worse than UAE, so it was not all that good [MENTION=131701]Mamoon[/MENTION].

Consistency of the pitches this PSL has been top class, good batting surfaces throughout the tournament.

Lahore's pitch is always pretty slow and boring to watch cricket on. The Pindi pitch is really good though, offering pace, bounce and lateral movement. Karachi's pitch is an absolute belter.

 

[Hawkeye]

Lahore's pitch is always pretty slow and boring to watch cricket on. The Pindi pitch is really good though, offering pace, bounce and lateral movement. Karachi's pitch is an absolute belter.

Not always.

Lahore this PSL has been a belter.

That is a positive change.

 

[HappyWarsFan]

Prepare fast and bouncy pitches when Asian teams are tours. When a SENA team comes, create slow, low and turning pitches.

 

[Abdullah719]

OK, this Lahore pitch is not exactly ideal for T20 cricket... turning square. Samit 4/4

 

[Ertugrul_Bey]

Move final to Karachi. Finals in Lahore on these square turners will be bad for business.

 

[minamino]

Pathetic pitch

 

[MenInG]

Pathetic pitch

Why couldnt Quetta take advantage of same 'pathetic pitch' ?

 

[minamino]

Why couldnt Quetta take advantage of same 'pathetic pitch' ?

They didn't expect it to turn this much. Even Samit said the same thing and also said that he hopes pitches are better for next matches

 

[shamaan]

They didn't expect it to turn this much. Even Samit said the same thing and also said that he hopes pitches are better for next matches

Dont judge until both teams have bowled on it wasnt the best but waant the worst they chased it in 11 overs

 

[Titan24]

They didn't expect it to turn this much. Even Samit said the same thing and also said that he hopes pitches are better for next matches

LQ chased the total inside 12 overs with loss of two wickets. QG played poor cricket and didnt play as per the conditions.

 

[Hawkeye]

LQ chased the total inside 12 overs with loss of two wickets. QG played poor cricket and didnt play as per the conditions.

Pitch was still poor, horrible rather.

Someone batting out of their skins would have struggled to make 140-150 total here.

Final will be on a terrible pitch too.

 

[Titan24]

Pitch was still poor, horrible rather.

Someone batting out of their skins would have struggled to make 140-150 total here.

Final will be on a terrible pitch too.

It wasnt a perfect pitch which is true but it definitely was good enough to score 150 odd score or even more. QG batting was poor, Watson got a good ball but;

-> Roy played the ball which was on good length on the backfoot on a spinning track which was just poor way to play spin

-> Sarfaraz played a cross batted shot on a track assisting spin which was again criminal

-> Azam Khan didnt have any stride towards the ball and just had a small stride which is again poor technique to play when ball is spinning as he allowed it to spin rather than covering the spin with a fuller stride

Rest were poor dismissals as well and players like Shehzad and Cutting just gave it away.

It wasnt the best T20 wicket but definitely not as bad as QG was making it out to be with odd acting after dismissals and also not as unplayable as fans here were making it out to be.

 

[moghul]

Pitch was still poor, horrible rather.

Someone batting out of their skins would have struggled to make 140-150 total here.

Final will be on a terrible pitch too.

Looks like QG and LQ batted on two different pitches.

 

[Hasan123]

The pitch that QG and Lahore played on was absolutely shocking. For T20s the pitches should be flat with good bounce and carry.

T20 is about fun and entertaining fans.

Pitches that have something in it for the bowlers are for the ODI and test formats.

 

[SensiblePakFan]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">They don’t get enough credit for the work they did during the games here. They were outstanding in my opinion <a href="https://t.co/hXWev6Vpl2">https://t.co/hXWev6Vpl2</a></p>— Daren Sammy (@darensammy88) <a href="https://twitter.com/darensammy88/status/1236408613813604354?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 7, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Three hurrahs for the Pindi ground staff!!! They have worked tirelessly in unfamiliar conditions this last week of mopping tons of rain water off the ground and still have been able to produce bone dry pitches in overcast rainy conditions. Brilliant &#55357;&#56399;&#55357;&#56399;&#55357;&#56399;&#55357;&#56399;</p>— Ramiz Raja (@iramizraja) <a href="https://twitter.com/iramizraja/status/1235568151833661440?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 5, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

[SensiblePakFan]

Pindi ground staff’s painstaking efforts bear fruit in gloomy weather

RAWALPINDI: The Rawalpindi leg of the HBL Pakistan Super League 2020 was an unqualified success in terms of attendance with the Pindi Cricket Stadium providing a great spectacle throughout thanks to bumper crowds thronging through the turnstiles during the seven matches which took place.

But its conclusion almost met with catastrophe when the final fixture here between Islamabad United and Multan Sultans was perilously close to be abandoned following the spate of rain that dogged the majority of the matches staged in this garrison town.

According to reliable sources, Sunday’s nine-over-per-side game would have never taken place at all due to the severely-drenched conditions of the outfield. But the outstanding groundstaff yet again put in huge efforts to make the arena somehow playable.

The lengthy delay to the match — which was officially slated to begin at 2:00 pm — was caused by presence of wet patches spread out at various spots, which needed non-stop remedial measures, carried out by head curator Mohammad Ashraf and his team, before umpires were satisfied that the game could start at 4:15 pm — exactly two-and-a-quarter hours behind schedule.

When contacted by Dawn on Monday afternoon, Ashraf confirmed that he and his staff were prepared for the worst possible scenario panning out.

“The writing was clearly on the wall when we reported at the ground in the early hours of Sunday. The conditions we saw put all of us in a state of depression, and the reason was very obvious because we didn’t have the required equipment to dry out the outfield,” Ashraf revealed. “The rains we had during the period [of the matches here] left the outfield inundated. The situation yesterday [Sunday] was so bad that we were ready to give all hopes of holding the game because the water just beneath had filled up to the top of the surface.

“One must understand that unless the sun comes out for long hours during the day, there is no chance of being blessed with a dry outfield. The weather here [in Rawalpindi] is still cold and wet. And throughout the duration [of PSL], the ground staff had a huge fight to win in combatting the harsh conditions.

“How we managed to minimise the damage is nothing short of a miracle because one cannot fight the nature and when there is so much rain around nobody can do anything but keep hoping for the best.” Luckily, only one match [Islamabad United vs Peshawar Zalmi on Feb 29 — the solitary fixture in this PSL to be abandoned without a ball being delivered] was completely washed out.

“While four matches remained unaffected by the adverse weather, the remaining three at least saw some action because we all worked round the clock because our aim was not to deprive the knowledgeable cricket fans of their moments of enjoyment,” the modest Ashraf said.

Ashraf, 55, is the son of Haji Mohammad Bashir who was a long-serving chief Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) curator at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore who retired in 2018 and is now working at the Lahore Qalandars-owned ground at Jallo Park in the Punjab metropolis. And like his father, Ashraf is held in high esteem in the cricketing circles.

“I’ve been working at the Pindi Cricket Stadium for about 28 years now and during my tenure, I have witnessed countless ups and downs. But Alhamdulillah I have no regrets because the team working under me includes extremely hardworking individuals,” he remarked.

“During the recent Test matches [against Sri Lanka and Bangladesh] and the PSL, we had to strengthen our team with four groundstaff members each were sent to Rawalpindi from Abbottabad and Mirpur [in Azad Kashmir] to work alongside the 11 of us working at the Pindi Cricket Stadium.”

However, Ashraf lamented the lack of adequate facilities does make him worry.

“I’ll give just one example; we had to borrow the ‘super-sopper’ [a mechanical-operated machine which dries up the outfield and the adjacent areas of the square surrounding the pitches] from the Gaddafi Stadium. Because the one we have here is worn-out and in a state of ramshackle.”

When asked to explain the secret behind the outfield becoming playable so quickly in the wake of showers in Rawalpindi, Ashraf replied: “Actually we don’t carry a magic wand or something else. The soil underneath this entire outfield has a blended texture of clay and sand. We bought a big number of trucks of sand many years ago from nearby Chak Shahzad [which is a suburb of Islamabad Capital Territory] and mixed the sand with the clay.

“This greatly helped in soaking the water on the grassy surface, mainly due to the presence of sand below the ground level.”

In the end, Ashraf praised former Sri Lanka batsman and ex-ICC match referee Roshan Mahanama, who has been officiating during the PSL here.

“Without a doubt, I’ll always rate Roshan very high among all the match referees in this PSL. He’s a thorough professional who understands the problems encountered by the ground staff. Moreover, he is a good-natured individual with whom we shared unforgettable moments during the matches here in Rawal*pindi,” Ashraf signed off.

https://www.dawn.com/news/1539765/p...nstaking-efforts-bear-fruit-in-gloomy-weather

 

[SensiblePakFan]

Finally got an explanation to how pindi dried up so quickly.

 

[QalandarFan]

Those farmer wickets for Bangladesh series were exceptions. Pakistani pitches are always batting friendly and that has been the case since the 90’s.

The Karachi leg of PSL had proper batting wickets in the early editions of PSL when Wasim Khan was working with ECB.

The first tour of Pakistan since 2009, the 2015 Zimbabwe tour, had proper roads as well with Pakistan scoring almost 400 in the first ODI with tuk tuk batsmen.

I understand that Wasim Khan is the flavor of the month and people want to give him credit for everything especially since he took over from the spawn of the devil called Najam Sethi, but let’s not be ridiculous and give him credit for things that he does not deserve.

Gotta say I have to agree with this, we're going a bit overboard here, people are acting as if we used to have the slow UAE pitches prior to Wasim Khan taking over we've always had great wickets in Pakistan. Even if you go all the way back to the 2005 English series it's clear that we've always had great wickets.

 

[shah_1]

The pitches has exposed many players

UAE pitches brought every player at the same level. Batsman with strokeplays or not, and quality bowler or not. Truly the first season of PSL

 

[MenInG]

<div style="width: 100%; height: 0px; position: relative; padding-bottom: 50%;"><iframe src="https://streamable.com/e/cbzem0" frameborder="0" width="100%" height="100%" allowfullscreen style="width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute;"></iframe></div>


Using Eidee money to make a pitch!