New Delhi: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has challenged International Cricket Council (ICC) match referee Chris Broad’s decision to deem the Indore pitch for the third Test of the Border-Gavaskar series as “poor”.
As per the ICC norms, an appeal like this is heard and determined by the ICC’s General Manager-Cricket, Wasim Khan and former India captain Sourav Ganguly, who is currently the chairman of the ICC Men’s Cricket Committee. However, Ganguly will be recused from the process as he’s from India, the ICC member country which has lodged the protest. The ICC will, thus, replace Ganguly with someone else for this process.
Australia won the Test by 9 wickets inside three days, in a game which saw India score 109 & 163, while the visitors made 197 & 78 for 1. The match, which began on March 1 and ended on the morning of March 3, saw 31 wickets fall in seven sessions, with 26 of them being captured by the spinners on a vicious turner, which was criticized by many former cricketers.
The Indian Board had time till March 17 (two weeks after the conclusion of the game) to appeal against the ICC’s decision.
The BCCI is encouraged by the fact there is a precedent of such an appeal being considered and the verdict being overturned/revised by the ICC. Last year, the ICC had reconsidered the ‘below average’ rating for the pitch at Rawalpindi for the England-Pakistan Test after an appeal by the Pakistan Cricket Board. The ICC match referee had described the Rawalpindi pitch as “very flat,” but the PCB successfully appealed against the decision on the grounds that the match produced a result. The ICC thus rescinded the demerit point given to the ground.
The BCCI challenged Broad’s verdict on the Indore pitch after a request to it from the hosting unit-the Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association in this regard. “On March 5, we had, via an email, requested the BCCI to file an appeal (against the verdict),” MPCA CEO Rohit Pandit said from Indore.
“The pitch, which was very dry, did not provide a balance between bat and ball, favouring spinners from the start. The fifth ball of the match broke through the pitch surface and continued to occasionally break the surface providing little or no seam movement and there was excessive and uneven bounce throughout the match,” ICC match referee Chris Broad wrote in his report while announcing the verdict for the Indore pitch.
The demerits points, though, won’t prevent Indore from hosting international games in the future. “As per the ICC rules, if a venue gets 5 demerit points, which continue over a rolling period of 5 years, then it cannot host an international game for the next 12 months. If we don’t get any more demerits points in the next 5 years, then we are through. We just have to be doubly cautious about a pitch when we host a Test the next time,” Pandit explained.
