The ICC is funny

radio report here says the ICC has launched an investigation into the state of the pitch used in the third test between india and SA

Maybe they heard about Dhoni's little "present" to the curator?

so if the pitch was found to have been doctored/tampered with what will the ICC do????....fine the BCCI millions???...

i am willing to wager that the investigation will prove to be inconclusive

BCCI has given a fitting reply to ICC by e-mail. The BCCI has asked ICC in return why the Ahmedabad pitch in the second test that saw the Saffies winning in 3 days as well is not being questioned. The BCCI has also asked why the cow pastures dished out to India in New Zealand in 2003 that saw both tests end in n and half days was not questioned and why only Kanpur is being questioned?

ICC may actually fnd itself in a corner for it's sheer hypocrisy now that the BCCI has raised the issues and refered it back to them.

The pitch was reported by the match referee.

Batman wrote:BCCI has given a fitting reply to ICC by e-mail. The BCCI has asked ICC in return why the Ahmedabad pitch in the second test that saw the Saffies winning in 3 days as well is not being questioned. The BCCI has also asked why the cow pastures dished out to India in New Zealand in 2003 that saw both tests end in n and half days was not questioned and why only Kanpur is being questioned?

ICC may actually fnd itself in a corner for it's sheer hypocrisy now that the BCCI has raised the issues and refered it back to them.

has the bcci really asked for an investigation of its own pitch for the second test???...you may now have the basis of a new (and funny) routine - whether true or not

taipan wrote:The pitch was reported by the match referee.

Yes, but ICC is now having an enquiry. BCCI merely asked ICC back on why they did not question the A'bad pitch and the NZ pitches as well. I find it comical that Mahanama who was part of a team hat deliberately made pitches at home to suit their batting and Murali's style getting all holistic on this issue.

Batman wrote:

taipan wrote:The pitch was reported by the match referee.

Yes, but ICC is now having an enquiry. BCCI merely asked ICC back on why they did not question the A'bad pitch and the NZ pitches as well. I find it comical that Mahanama who was part of a team hat deliberately made pitches at home to suit their batting and Murali's style getting all holistic on this issue.

Batty, it might well have to do with Dhoni's gift of money to the curator . . . no matter how above board that action was, it sets a bloody bad precedent.

Maybe we now have the ultimate reversal. The captain paying the curator for pitch information.

Tac, the practice of giving money to curators in appreciation is not an out of way practice here. Groundsmans here are paid peanuts for the work they do and don't even have steady jobs with BCCI and the custom of giving them some money [also called 'Bakshish'. Gifting some money when one is happy with a lowly poor wage worker] is common practice in India. Most Govt machinary runs on this practice, even though it now borders on being corrupt where now Govt is concerned since Bakshish now has given way to bribe. But in the case of pitch and groundsman, they get these appreciation tokens after most matches here from team after a game even in domestic matches [except perhaps when India loses heavily]. It's the work culture here and nothing sinister. Captains before Dhoni too have done the same like Ganguly, Azhar, Sachin, Kapil and this is nothing exclusive. If India had won in A'bad and Kumble had done the same, would that have been an issue? Too much is being amde out of nothing here.
There is nothing corrupt about it. This has been happening for ages even when India was not winning too much.

Here Tac is a news item that explains this tradition of gifting better. In India any event or festival, normal workers expect some money as reward. It's almost a tradition and nothing exclusive with Dhoni.


Delhi curator defends Dhoni rewarding ground staffNew Delhi: Veteran Delhi cricket curator Radhey Shyam on Tuesday supported the "tradition" of giving money to ground staff for hard work, justifying India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni giving Rs.10,000 to the Kanpur curator after the win over South Africa on Sunday.


"Ground staff at every venue waits eagerly for an international match. A Test match or a One-Day International is like their Holi or Diwali - an occasion when players give them money as appreciation," Radhey Shyam, who had also prepared the Ferozeshah Kotla pitch on which Anil Kumble took all 10 Test wickets against Pakistan in 1999, told IANS.

"I felt sad when I heard that people are finding ulterior motives in Dhoni giving money to the Green Park Stadium pitch curator Shiv Kumar. He gave the money to him and the rest of the ground staff as his appreciation," he said.

India, led for the first time in a Test by Dhoni, defeated South Africa inside three days in the third five-day Test on a pitch that assisted slow bowlers and later provided uneven bounce. It was said that the pitch was prepared under specific instructions from the Indian team after it had lost the second Test in Ahmedabad and trailed the series 0-1 going into the final match.

An organiser of the Kanpur Test said the money was not meant only for Shiv Kumar.

"The money was meant to be shared by four or five people who are part of the ground staff. And if you divide Rs.10,000 it comes to just about Rs.2,000 per head. Is it big money?" he said by phone from Kanpur.

Shiv Kumar, on his part, denied that he received any money from Dhoni.

"I have not received any money from anyone. If someone else has received money, I do not know about it. But traditionally, players give money to ground staff as a token of appreciation," Kumar told IANS from Kanpur.

Radhey Shyam said he was given money when Kumble took a world-record 10 wickets in the second innings against Pakistan at the Ferozeshah Kotla in 1999.

"Giving a token amount to the ground staff is just a tradition and it must continue. I was given Rs.4,000 by Kapil Dev once after an international match at the Kotla. Many players give some money individually, but that never comes out in the open. It's part of the game's tradition," he said.

Radhey Shyam, in fact, alleged that these days few players give money to the ground staff.

"With so much money coming into the game, players have become more money minded. For instance, no Delhi player gave anything to the Ferozeshah Kotla grounds men this season while the Himachal Pradesh team gave Rs.1,000," he said.

Even umpires give some money to grounds men just for measuring the pitch, the boundary line, the inner circle and the stumps' width and height. "That should not be misconstrued," said Radhey Shyam.

I doubt ICC will want to investigate every Ranji Trophy domestic match here for domestic teams offering some monetory reward to curators who hardly make [Rs 5000 per match a year] after a match in appreciation. Everything cannot be blanket viewed with corruption.

Thanks, Batty . . . still, they seem to be going out of their way to convince someone that nothing was untoward . . . guilty conscience?

Money for Hard work?

That pitch had about as much work done on it as a cow field in devon in January!

Your bleeting about the pitch for the 2nd test finishing in under 5 days is a joke. The only reason you lost that test is because your side couldn't play quick bowling, not because of the pitch.

The pitch in the 3rd test was THE worst test match pitch I have ever seen.

holcs wrote:Money for Hard work?

That pitch had about as much work done on it as a cow field in devon in January!

Your bleeting about the pitch for the 2nd test finishing in under 5 days is a joke. The only reason you lost that test is because your side couldn't play quick bowling, not because of the pitch.

The pitch in the 3rd test was THE worst test match pitch I have ever seen.

Phurt, it was nothing to the Chennai pitch in 2004. Michael Clarke . . . 6/9 . . . Says. It. All.

holcs wrote:Money for Hard work?

That pitch had about as much work done on it as a cow field in devon in January!

Your bleeting about the pitch for the 2nd test finishing in under 5 days is a joke. The only reason you lost that test is because your side couldn't play quick bowling, not because of the pitch.

The pitch in the 3rd test was THE worst test match pitch I have ever seen.

So there is no hard work when India happen to lose a test?

taipan wrote:

holcs wrote:Money for Hard work?

That pitch had about as much work done on it as a cow field in devon in January!

Your bleeting about the pitch for the 2nd test finishing in under 5 days is a joke. The only reason you lost that test is because your side couldn't play quick bowling, not because of the pitch.

The pitch in the 3rd test was THE worst test match pitch I have ever seen.

So there is no hard work when India happen to lose a test?

Huh? All i'm saying is the 3rd test pitch was a joke hence the shortened match.

The 2nd test was down to India's inability. Pointing out the difference to Batty.

holcs wrote:Money for Hard work?

That pitch had about as much work done on it as a cow field in devon in January!

Your bleeting about the pitch for the 2nd test finishing in under 5 days is a joke. The only reason you lost that test is because your side couldn't play quick bowling, not because of the pitch.

The pitch in the 3rd test was THE worst test match pitch I have ever seen.

I have not yet 'bleated' about the second test pitch. The BCCI has asked of it to ICC. Whether the pitch had some hard work or no is not an issue that can be clubbed with poor curators expecting some money when a match is on. Two different things. Labour class here has no regular job, social security and pay and suffer from Govt apathy that does not care. They expect small token amounts as rewards when they get an opportunity over here. You are mixing a traditional way of working with whether that person did his work correctly or not. Too different things.

holcs wrote:Money for Hard work?

That pitch had about as much work done on it as a cow field in devon in January!

Your bleeting about the pitch for the 2nd test finishing in under 5 days is a joke. The only reason you lost that test is because your side couldn't play quick bowling, not because of the pitch.

The pitch in the 3rd test was THE worst test match pitch I have ever seen.

Well, clearly you haven't seen too many test matches.

And the only reason SA lost was because they couldn't play spin. Seems like things evened out.

And the pitch was hardly 100 runs in the 1st innings and 120 in the 2nd. Both teams scored about 300 in the 1st innings, after they had gifted some of their wickets. The Saffies were terrible in the 3rd innings, much like we were in the 1st innings in Ahmedabad.

holcs wrote:

taipan wrote:

holcs wrote:Money for Hard work?

That pitch had about as much work done on it as a cow field in devon in January!

Your bleeting about the pitch for the 2nd test finishing in under 5 days is a joke. The only reason you lost that test is because your side couldn't play quick bowling, not because of the pitch.

The pitch in the 3rd test was THE worst test match pitch I have ever seen.

So there is no hard work when India happen to lose a test?

Huh? All i'm saying is the 3rd test pitch was a joke hence the shortened match.

The 2nd test was down to India's inability. Pointing out the difference to Batty.

If you read Vikas' original explanation he claimed no money passes hands if India loses heavily.

tac wrote:

holcs wrote:Money for Hard work?

That pitch had about as much work done on it as a cow field in devon in January!

Your bleeting about the pitch for the 2nd test finishing in under 5 days is a joke. The only reason you lost that test is because your side couldn't play quick bowling, not because of the pitch.

The pitch in the 3rd test was THE worst test match pitch I have ever seen.

Phurt, it was nothing to the ChennaiMumbai pitch in 2004. Michael Clarke . . . 6/9 . . . Says. It. All.

Fixed.

The 3rd test may have saved India's honour in hte series but it simultaneously condemned India to a continuation of that longstanding theme of Test wins predominantly reliant on home dustbowls, and frequent devastating losses away on other styles of pitch. Whoever sanctions these deplorable dustbowl pitches is cutting off India's proverbial nose to save its proverbial face.

I suppose the fact that SA scored an absolute stack of runs on the 2nd Test pitch is the reason why the ICC don't GAF. And why should they in that regard? India were just shithouse, plain and simple.

I don't agree with anyone who reckons that's the worst Test pitch they've ever seen. In fact, I'd infer they either haven't been watching cricket that long or they're having a sensationalist, girly hissy fit.

As for the curators, the BCCI needs to look after them more IMO, although that wouldn't be greedy enough of them. They are scum.

Not that I totally disagree with some of the views on the pitch, it was needless and extreme, and could as easily have let SA demolish us.

However, I do think more pitches should aid the spinners in India, and after about the 3rd day, the pitch should turn square. It's despairing watching the clone pitches put out in India, with absolutely no trace of originality. Flat, with uneven bounce after lunch on the 5th day.

No-one objects to pitches that assist spin, but a pitch should last at least 4 days, and no pitch should allow Michael Clarke or Nathan Hauritz (or anyone of that ilk) to turn a ball square on day 3.