A contrived pitch controversy looked to spoil the atmosphere ahead of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 semifinal between India and New Zealand on Wednesday. The International Cricket Council (ICC) had to clarify that the independent pitch consultant Andy Atkinson was taken into confidence on the change of surface.
A few reports suggested that while a fresh pitch was originally prepared for the last-four match at the Wankhede Stadium, later it was decided to play the game on a “used” deck in order to help Indian spinners.
It did not matter as India thrashed New Zealand by 70 runs to march comfortably into the final.
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Indian batting legend Sunil Gavaskar lashed out at the critics and sceptics saying that both teams were playing on the same pitch and in the end, India won the match.
“The country reaches the finals of any tournament, like the Asia Cup or any sort of multi-country tournament, it’s always a great delight for all Indian supporters. And that is what India has done and they’ve done it in style. And yes, they had an extra cushion of maybe 70-80 or 100 runs and they’ve defended that. This has been such a good pace to be gone. On what 420-430 runs score scored, all those morons who are talking about the pitch being changed so that it gives Indian bowlers the favour,” Gavaskar told the broadcasters after the end of the match.
“I hope that they will stop taking potshots at India just because help you to get your eyeballs or whatever it was. Even if it was it was before the toss for both teams. It wasn’t changed in the beginning. It wasn’t changed, you know after the toss was done. You are a good enough team to play on that pitch and you win and India have done that. They are already talking about Ahmedabad, the other semifinal hasn’t taken place yet,” he added.
However, the global governing body stated that the decision to change the pitch has nothing uncommon to it.
“Changes to planned pitch rotations are common towards the end of an event of this length and have already happened a couple of times.
“This change was made on the recommendation of the venue curator in conjunction with our host,” the ICC said in a statement.
The ICC also said Atkinson, its independent pitch consultant, was aware of the change.
“The ICC independent pitch consultant was apprised of the change and has no reason to believe the pitch won’t play well,” said the ICC.
(With inputs from Agencies)
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