WAYANAD/THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Batsmen keep getting hit. A five-day match finishes before the second day reaches the halfway stage. A quarterfinal and a semifinal of the country’s premier first-class tournament last less than four days combined. When these things happen at the same venue in the space of a week, the pitch is bound to come under microscope.

The shocking turn of events at Wayanad’s Krishnagiri Stadium, where the Kerala-Vidarbha semifinal ended shortly after lunch on Day 2, has raised eyebrows. Vidarbha coach Chandrakant Pandit termed it disappointing and dangerous. Daljit Singh, chairman of the BCCI committee that looks after pitches, cited inadequate time  for preparation.

The BCCI is yet to make a statement. But with players of the home and visiting teams expressing dissatisfaction and the scoreboard telling the story, some sort of action is expected. The usual practice is that the board takes a call after receiving a report from the match referee.

“It’s disappointing to see the semifinal finishing in less than one and-a-half days. We never expected the pitch to behave like that. More than anything else, players could have got injured,” Pandit said. Normally, the coach of a winning team appears happy after the match. But this situation is causing unusual reactions.
“We didn’t prepare the wicket. The neutral curator from the BCCI did. In the last match (quarterfinal vs Gujarat, over before lunch on Day 3) also, we didn’t complain. The curator had promised this game will go into the fourth or fifth day. It didn’t happen,” said Kerala captain Sachin Baby. It has been learnt that Gujarat captain Parthiv Patel has also lodged a complaint.

When the BCCI announced the knockout  schedule, General Manager of Operations Syed Saba Karim had sent instructions to the host associations on various issues. Primary among them was the pitch. He had also mentioned that local curators should help the zonal heads in preparing surfaces to ensure that matches don’t end in two-three days. Kerala, who played their group matches in Thiruvananthapuram, chose Wayanad for knockouts, which seems to have given the BCCI curator little time.

Both matches combined, Vidarbha’s 208 was the highest total. The longest a team batted was 59 overs. There were two sub-100 totals and in the semifinal, two Kerala innings were over in less than 54 overs. Daljit said time was a constraint. “It was a fresh wicket, in the sense that it was not used this season. For both matches, we got about three days to make it ready. It wasn’t totally level and (neutral curator) Ashish Bhowmick did whatever he could. These two matches are exceptions this entire season.”

With Wayanad set to host two four-day fixtures involving India A and England Lions in February, the pitch will be in focus again. “Before the India A match, all grievances will be taken care of. Because of the crowded fixture, we had little time to roll out a good surface,” Daljit added.