Neutral venues produced great pitches for KOs

Till a few years ago, knockout matches of the Ranji Trophy were held on a home and away basis. The team hosting a match had two major advantages. Firstly, preparing the pitch was their prerogative. Secondly, they had the home crowd support, Aakash Chopra reports.

Till a few years ago, knockout matches of the Ranji Trophy were held on a home and away basis. The team hosting a match had two major advantages. Firstly, preparing the pitch was their prerogative. Secondly, they had the home crowd support.

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Those were days when people turned up in big numbers to watch a first class game. And if that game happened to be between Mumbai and Delhi, with all the big players available, the atmosphere would match an international, or so I’m told.

Gradually the crowds starting dwindling and home teams abused their right to prepare the track. They started preparing tracks to suit their strengths without keeping the larger interest of the game in mind. A spin-heavy attack would prepare a dustbowl to have an upper hand. Similarly, teams which banked on their batsmen to win the game, dished out featherbeds.

The BCCI tried to counter this by appointing the Chief Curator to overlook preparations. But the chief curator didn’t have complete control over ground staff. He would give suggestions, which very few who would implement, especially when it meant putting their team in jeopardy.

Hence the BCCI was forced to have neutral venues for knockout matches. It was wonderful because it tested teams on a neutral playing ground. Knockouts were held at Test centres and most are capable of producing result-oriented pitches.

I have no doubt that Delhi’s winning the Ranji trophy in 2007-08 had a lot to do with neutral venues. We would have fallen way short of Uttar Pradesh in the final if the match was in Lucknow or Kanpur and they had prepared a dustbowl. The Mumbai track was a players’ delight. The ball swung for the first couple of days before becoming a great track to bat on.

The track offered a lot of bounce and spinners were involved throughout the game.

From this year, neutral venues have been done away with and we are back to old ways. To negate the home advantage in pitches the BCCI has now appointed neutral curators for all four venues.

But is it fair to expect a Rohtak or Palam track to play like Wankhede?

Incidentally, the venues for the four matches do not have the required infrastructure for live coverage.

Hence, while league games were live on TV, the quarter-finals aren’t. This move may perhaps bring a few people to the ground but has infact denied many more to watch the game on TV.