IPL matches to have batsman friendly pitches

The Indian cricket board's multi- billion dollar Indian Premier League matches beginning on April 18 would be a feast for batsmen, with IPL authorities asking the associations to prepare tracks with good carry and pace to ensure high scores.

"The pitches will have good carry and pace. So that there is a good first innings score and the team batting second has a good total to chase," BCCI's ground and pitches committee head Daljit Singh, who is overall in-charge of wicket preparation for the league, told PTI.

"We want wickets conducive to the twenty20 format. The centres have been asked to prepare hard wickets with good bounce," Daljit said.

He said the tracks should neither have lateral movement, nor be spinner-frinedly, as such wickets were not good for the slam bang variety of cricket.

Daljit, who visited the Eden Gardens - the home venue of matches involving the Kolkata team owned by Shah Rukh Khan's Red Chillies Entertainment - held discussions with the side's would-be skipper Sourav Ganguly.

Daljit said he and other members of the ground and pitches committee would tour all the IPL venues "and see the preparation for ourselves".

"But ultimately the repsonsiblity for wicket preparation rests with the staging associations," he said.