Former BCCI curator slams ‘poor’ drop-in New York pitches, says they should’ve been installed months ago

Former BCCI chief curator Daljit Singh was left shocked by the “poor quality” of drop-in pitches being used in New York for the T20 World Cup, including the one that featured India and Ireland on Wednesday.

India play all three of their World Cup group stage games in New York including the blockbuster clash against Pakistan on 9 June. In the tournament opener against Ireland,
uneven bounce and cracks attracted plenty of attention
.

Rohit Sharma was forced to retire
after being struck by a Josh Little delivery that took off from the length. Rishabh Pant, too, was hit on the elbow during the course of the
8-wicket win
.

“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 over two decades, told news agency PTI.

“It seems they just installed it without doing any of that, poor quality and preparation I would say,” he said.

The drop-in charges were transported from Australia to New York in the first week of May. All 10 wickets, four for the main square and six practice pitches, have been prepared by the Adelaide Oval curator Damian Hough.

“Installation of the pitches should have been done three months ago. The 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,” said Daljit, also a former first-class cricketer.

Construction work at the makeshift venue in New York started in January and considering the harsh winter, it would have been difficult for the organisers to install the pitches in advance.

Asked how he expects the surface to play for India vs Pakistan, Daljit added: “I don’t how it will play there, India-Pakistan is a big game. I am certainly not okay with what I have seen so far.”

Besides the pitch, the outfield is also on the slower side but Daljit doesn’t find anything problematic with that. “The outfield seems to be okay but the pitch is where the main problem is.”

On 1 May, the ICC had notified that 10 drop-in pitches were being prepared in Florida since late December, employing proprietary techniques honed over a decade at the Adelaide Oval.

They were transported to New York by road via a convoy of more than 20 semi-trailer trucks.