Dust bowls against the 'spirit of cricket'?

[CatManDo]

Not my opinion... not quite Gilly's either, but he is certainly intimating that Sri Lanka go too far in preparing spinners wicket. He said its gone to 'the extreme' on this tour (ironically, the pitch for the second test may well be a decent fast bowling track).

Personally I see it as part of the game and only to be expected. We might not make all our pitches in Australia green tops but they are naturally better for fast bowlers; and really, the only reason why we DONT play more matches in Perth is money, pure and simple.

And the preparation of pitches in Australia for the last series makes you wonder whether they had money solely in mind, by producing batsmens wickets that ensured 5 day tests.

Anyway, nothing to really get carried away about, but at the same time, Gilly isnt really the best person to be talking about the spirit of cricket at the moment.

The article:
--------------------------------------------------------------

Wickets test spirit of cricket: Gilchrist

SRI Lanka is stretching the boundaries of good sportsmanship with the type of pitches prepared so far for Australia's cricket tour, according to Australian vice-captain Adam Gilchrist.

Gilchrist questioned the practice of preparing pitches so heavily weighted towards the home team's strengths, even though the move backfired in Galle where Australia went 1-0 up in the Test series after Shane Warne and Stuart MacGill took nine wickets between them on the final day.

The wicket-keeper said if such a practice took place in Australia it would fall foul of the Spirit of Cricket charter.

"I think the Spirit of Cricket covers a wider cross section of things than verbal comments on the field," Gilchrist said ahead of the second Test in Kandy, which starts tomorrow.

"I've asked myself that question a lot. What's right for the game? What's incorrect by way of conditions and what you serve up.

"Whether it's right or wrong I'm not sure. But . . . that's also why your tour other countries because you have to take on these challenging conditions and different things.

"I think there still has to be home characteristics and conditions but it's certainly being stretched to the absolute extreme from what we've seen so far in this series."

Gilchrist said if the same thing happened in Australia in an effort to favour Brett Lee, Jason Gillespie and other fast bowlers, there would be five or six Tests in Perth and not much cricket elsewhere.

"Every wicket we've seen has ended being exactly as we expected - a dry, dusty, turner," Gilchrist said.

"It's what their cricket is based around but when we come up against those conditions we're fortunate to have world-class spinners who can extract something.

"The pleasing thing from the Australian point of view is that while we haven't won in the subcontinent for a long time, at least we've been very competitive.

"It would be easy to say 'they're not the best conditions' and fall down. But for a number of years, this crop of players has put up a good fight and it's paid dividends so far on this tour and, hopefully, will towards the end of the year when we go back to India."

Sri Lanka, meanwhile, has added left-arm spinner Rangana Herath to its squad to cover for some doubtful starters including star opener Sanath Jayasuriya, who split the webbing in his hand in the first Test and is struggling to bat or bowl, while middle-order batsman Thilan Samaraweera has a groin strain.

[Fall Out Boy]

Doesn't surprise me that it's Adam Gilchrist saying it.

If that is against the spirit of the game, then perhaps the Perth pitch should also be looked it.

It's all swings and roundabouts, you come to Australia and you expect bouncy tracks, you go to the sub-continent and you expect flat dusty tracks.

[The Candy Man]

Not sure that Sri Lankan pitches can be regarded as "against the spirit of the game".

Traditionally, Australian pitches offer something to fast bowlers, batsmen and spinners alike. I know Les Burdett loves to prepare an Adelaide Oval pitch that has some early life, is good for batting on days 2 and 3, then starts to wear and turn on days 4 and 5.

I was always brought up to believe this is how a pitch should be prepared, and I never questioned it.

However, there are no guidelines set down by the ICC as to how a pitch should be prepared. Sri Lankans may feel a perfect pitch is one that keeps low and spins from day 1.

As much as I personally dislike that style of pitch, the Sri Lankans are quite within their rights to prepare that type of deck. They may consider the Perth wicket as contrary to the spirit of the game.

Maybe the ICC needs to regulate Test wickets, and appoint a board of curators who travel the world preparing wickets for Test Cricket.

But then again, maybe we need these different wickets all over the world to enhance our cricket education.

[crudbucket]

After reading the heading, I thought that this was going to be slag against the VCA.

[Mog]

Perhaps the Australians should shut up and just continue on winning. One bad day and the whining begins. Almost as bad as the cricketing public.

[billy big ears]

Wot arent Warne or MacGill any good at spinning the ball on doctored pitches?

[Cooldude]

Gilly does have a point.

The Sri Lankans are trying to doctor the pitch to suit their own players, dustbowls is also supposedly the weakness of Australia.

Gilly's point is having home advantage does not mean curators can doctor the pitch for the needs of the home side or for the detriment of the touring side.

If Australian curators do the same thing, we could've prepared a greentop for the Indians at the Gabba last year.

NZ did the same thing for India two years ago, they had a greentop after another, after another, after another, it was a great effort to get to 100 in the test or one day series, and hardly any score went beyond 200.

Waqar Younis publicly asked the curator to prepare the type of pitch that he askes him to, when Australia played them in a Test series in a NEUTRAL venue.

Curators should always try their best to prepare the best pitch possible.

[dan warna]

I have no problems with home countries picking pitches to suite themselves.

we do it for the tennis, and the cricket, so what? the paks, indians and lankans come here and get hammered with our fast bowlers, they can't deal with the bounce and the speed.

as for dustbowls, we have two good spinners in warne and lehmann, and symonds can spin a bit, and we have that latte hack from NSW to back up the good bowlers...

as for doctoring, I remember teddy dexter about a decade ago order the brit curators to build spin tops because he though his spinners were better than ours, I think warne took a swag of swags that time, may might have chipped in with a few too:D :D :D

he was the best thing for quotes also - drongo

[pav_is_god]

Originally posted by billy big ears
Wot arent Warne or MacGill any good at spinning the ball on doctored pitches?

Which does raise the question, how do you think Warne's comeback would have been like if he didn't play on a spinning wicket?

[Crooked Rain]

They grow up playing on dust bowls - that is their conditions.

We have our conditions.

Part of being a great cricketer is being able to play on all surfaces. Much like a tennis player has to.

[frankrizzo]

Even though I think Sri lanka do go a bit far with regards to pitch conditions (people can say they don't but their over reliance on murali and woeful overseas record points to the possibility they do) I also feel gillie is getting a little obsessive with the spirit of the game, since he walked in the world cup he seems to have lost that hard edge needed to succeed in the test cricket cauldron.

We need a test number 7 who gives himself time to get started against the spinners by not swinging wildly across the line, not a Ritchie Cunningham who is more interested in how people see him off the pitch.

[CatManDo]

Originally posted by frankrizzo
We need a test number 7 who gives himself time to get started against the spinners by not swinging wildly across the line, not a Ritchie Cunningham who is more interested in how people see him off the pitch.

As much as I find it difficult to criticise Gilly as a player, I agree here. I think he has a pretty awful record on the sub continent - and I expect him to buckle down in the next two tests and put on some good scores. He is good enough to do it.

[Fall Out Boy]

Originally posted by CatManDo
As much as I find it difficult to criticise Gilly as a player, I agree here. I think he has a pretty awful record on the sub continent - and I expect him to buckle down in the next two tests and put on some good scores. He is good enough to do it.

Gilly is a bit of a flat-track bully at times.

[likka]

With a couple of tons under his belt he wouldn't have made these comments, he's looked less at home as the Indians do in Perth.

Accept it as part of the game Gilly, put your head down, play straight and accept that occasionally you won't score at a run a ball.

[bunsen burner]

Preparing wickets that get 17 wickets on the first day of a test match is definitely not in the spirit of cricket. The ICC should be making a strong recommendation to the Sri Lankan Cricket Board.

People can comment about the WACA, but it has always been fast and bouncy and I can't remember anything like 17 wickets going down on the first day.

Of course it's within Sri Lanka's right to doctor a pitch to their advantage, but it isn't in the spirit of the game.

[bunsen burner]

Originally posted by likka
With a couple of tons under his belt he wouldn't have made these comments, he's looked less at home as the Indians do in Perth.

Accept it as part of the game Gilly, put your head down, play straight and accept that occasionally you won't score at a run a ball. You do have a point about Gilly, but he isn't the only one struggling with the bat. Do you think a wicket that produced that much turn (and 17 wickets) on the first day is in the spirit of the game?

[Jim Boy]

Well at least the Sri Lankan groundsmen prepare pitches which both teams have to cope with. This is unlike recently in NZ where the kiwis were 102/2 overnight in reply to SA's 459. The pitch was starting to deterioate, when it was 'repaired' overnight. SA rightly complained and the pitch was 'restored'.