Ex-BCCI Curator SLAMS ‘Poor’ Drop In Pitches In New York Days Before India Vs Pakistan T20 World Cup Match

In what will be the biggest match in the T20 World Cup 2024, India are all set to take on Pakistan on June 9. The match is all se to take place at the newly constructed Nassau County Cricket Stadium in New York. There have been two games at the stadium in the tournament so far including India’s first match of the T20 World Cup 2024 against Ireland. The pitch came heavily under question, especially because of its odd bounce and carry. Now, a former BCCI pitch curator Daljit Singh has lashed out at the drop in pitches.

In an interaction with PTI, Daljit said that the drop in pitches need to be installed well in advance. In addition, matches need to be played on such pitches and they also need to be rolled on to increase the density.

“It is a poor pitch. Drop in pitch needs to be installed well in advance. To create density, you need to play on it and use different rollers and then increase the density,” Daljit, who worked with the BCCI for more than two decades, told PTI.

The former curator also accused the ICC of just installing the pitch without any preparation. The installation should have been done three months ago, and then should have been prepared according to the rules in ideal fashion. He even reiterated that the pitch is not ideal for T20s.

“It seems they just installed it without doing any of that, poor quality and preparation I would say. Installation of the pitches should have been done three months ago. They had to increase the density with heavy rolling, light rolling, cross rolling and diagonal rolling. Then take a break for a few days and then repeat the same for increasing the density. it doesn’t look good. There is uneven bounce, this is not an ideal pitch for T20s. More time should have been given to mature the pitch. It is not mature enough for the World Cup,” he said.

Daljit also asserted that he is unsure how a game like India vs Pakistan will be played on a pitch like that in New York.

“I don’t know how it will play there, India-Pakistan is a big game. I am certainly not okay with what I have seen so far,” he added.

Pakistan will play their first match of the T20 World Cup 2024 in a Group A encounter against USA. They are coming into the tournament on the back of 2-0 series loss against England. India on the other hand will be heading into the match on the back of some confidence, after they thrashed Ireland in their first game by 8 wickets.