West Indies legend Curtly Ambrose has added his voice to the call for an end to the preparation of placid pitches for international and regional cricket fixtures.
In the light of the recently concluded Sri Lanka, which ended with two drawn games, several former players and Windies coach Phil Simmons has expressed dissatisfaction with the surface prepared for the tour.
The debate has, however, raged long before that with Ambrose himself listed among those previously suggesting that many of the pitches prepared are too flat and offer little assistance to bowlers.
The recent West Indies, Sri Lanka series has only added to the dissatisfaction. In both Test matches, Sri Lanka, then the West Indies, enjoyed comfortable leads headed into the final day but ended up doing very little to disturb the batsmen on the final day.
“I have seen local cricket played at Sir Viv Richards cricket stadium where you have grass on the pitch and the ball bounces and carries with good pace … so it’s not a situation where it cannot be done,” Ambrose told the Good Morning Jojo Radio show.
“I felt that the pitches were a little too flat and I’ve been saying this for years — we need to prepare better cricket pitches where the batsmen could play their strokes and the ball bounces a bit for the bowlers,” he added. (SportsMax)
