The pitches prepared for the ongoing Test series between Pakistan and Australia have received ample criticism with veteran cricketers lashing out at Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chief Ramiz Raja for the dead pitches in Rawalpindi, where the first Test had ended in a draw, and in Karachi, where Australia batted for almost seven sessions to put on 500-plus total before declaring on Monday. And Pakistan cricket legend Wasim Akram joined the bandwagon on Monday calling the series "boring".
Speaking at an event on Monday, Akram said that he could barely watch the two matches so far and admitted that he knew the Rawalpindi Test would end in a draw after the first two deliveries of the match.
“During our time it depended a lot on what the captain wanted. These two Test matches I tried to watch it but I couldn't. As a ex-fast bowler I knew this would be a draw match after the second delivery of the match. When West Indies used to come back in our days, when Imran Khan was the captain, we used to make slow pitches,” an angry Akram said.
He further added that the pitches could have at least be made a turner if the idea was to create slow tracks in a bid to get a result.
{{/usCountry}}He further added that the pitches could have at least be made a turner if the idea was to create slow tracks in a bid to get a result.
{{/usCountry}}“There is a method to making slow tracks. If you want to do that, on the basis of technicality, you roll the centre less and leave the area around the front foot a little dry so that the ball turns from day 1. If you want to make slow pitches at least make it a turner so that we get a result-oriented match. I hope they learn from it whoever is making the pitches. It is quite boring to be honest,” he said.
After criticisms from former players like Inzamam-ul-Haq, Shahid Afridi and Mohammad Hafeez, Raja had responded earlier saying that Pakistan need to get a facelift and work on that will be done in March and April.
“A drawn Test is never a good advertisement for Test cricket and I totally understand that we need to have a result after five days of cricket. But I would like to clarify a few things,” said Raja in a video posted by the PCB.
“The first thing that I had said that we need to redo pitches in Pakistan on a massive scale. But it was September when I took charge and the season was still on. During the off season you would see that we got soil from Australia here and we experimented some kind of soil ourselves. We will then redo 50-60 pitches in Pakistan as soon as our season comes to an end in March and April,” he said.