Chief Curator admits that pitch preparation for Trinidad semifinal went wrong.

While acknowledging that the pitch preparation for the first semifinal between Afghanistan and South Africa went wrong, chief curator Kent Crawfton of the recently concluded T20 World Cup acknowledged that there was a deliberate effort on the part of the ground staff to have something for everyone, including the bowlers and batters.

“The goal was to create good cricket pitches that would provide bowlers with something to work with,” Kent Crawfton, who was in charge of the pitches during the Caribbean stage of the competition, stated to Cricbuzz on Saturday, one week after India emerged victorious in the competition.

Crawfton acknowledged that the pitch was not sufficiently prepared for the first semifinal at the Brian Lara Academy venue in Trinidad, which turned out to be a nightmare for the hitters. The initial semi-final pitch proved to be too biassed. The preparation programme did not go according to schedule. Because of this, the surface fractured and caused excessive variance in bounce, speed, and sideways movement,” he claimed.

Afghanistan lost by nine wickets, as South Africa reached the mark in less than nine overs, after being bowled out for 56 in 11.5 overs—the lowest score in a T20 World Cup match in the previous four. “It really was ugly. The pitch simply started to decline, which made for a poor spectacle for a Twenty20 match. On BBC Test Match Special, whose commentary was featured on the ICC website, former England bowler Stephen Finn stated, “It wasn’t up to scratch for a T20, but it would have been fascinating on day five of a Test match.”

“That’s not the pitch that you want to have a match, a World Cup semi-final on, plain and simple,” Afghanistan’s coach Jonathan Trott stated following the game. “I don’t want to get myself into trouble and I don’t want to come across as bitter or it being a case of sour grapes.” “A fair competition ought to ensue. Though I’m not advocating for it to be perfectly flat with no spin or seam movement, you shouldn’t have to worry about batters moving forward.”
He said, “There were a number of cracks,” while talking about the problem in more detail on a Mason and Guest Radio programme. Our plan for pre-preparation was not followed. Additionally, it was only a small amount to try when the preparations began.” He also discussed the overall planning of the pitches in the West Indies, mentioning the unusual summertime conditions in the Caribbean.

“There were several reasons [why certain pitches failed]. First of all, the weather in April—and even in March and April—was quite peculiar, especially in several of our islands. It was quite dry and hot. But I have to admit that we all gave it our all during that time to finish our activities.

“We all invested the necessary time and effort to restore and improve our squares at all of the sites. Generally speaking, I believe we were prepared. Some things got in the way of the plan. My observations suggest that our squares were not well managed during that extended period. It was, I believe, one of our failings.”

Crafton also talked about how some fields had grass cover, but a pitch with a brownish appearance, like the one at the final site in Barbados, was Kensington Oval.

“The aim was to have all pitches to be prepared with live grass, and all six venues were fully grassed ahead of detailed pitch presentation,” Crawfton explained. The most notable explanation is the way the squares were handled during the competition, particularly at the Kensington Oval, where their matches take place from June 2 to June 29. Over-covering and inadequate moisture retention in the pitch block. More care was taken with the green pitches than the naked ones.”

The first round of the 29-day, 55-match World Cup took place in the US, with 16 of the matches taking place in New York, Dallas, and Florida. Drop-in pitches were used for the eight games played in New York, and Crawfton claimed he was unsure of the conditions on those surfaces, which made batting challenging.

“Well, to be honest, I find it very difficult to comment when I wasn’t present to witness the finished product. However, while they were still under construction, I did view those photos in Florida. When I saw them, they were finished and had been grassed; they also appeared level and nice. Our sole concern with pitches is that the grass we use there ought to be light and thinned. How much of that was done, I’m not sure. Crawfton remarked, “I don’t know how thin that grass was.

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“Based on the way we built the pitches, the only thing that set those drop-in pitches apart from our regular pitches was the type of grass that was used, which wasn’t Bermuda grass. That seems to have been the most likely explanation. As I mentioned before, I lack that knowledge, thus I am unable to pinpoint. But the grass was different, I’m positive of that. However, I don’t believe that a drop-in pitch that was built months in advance of the competitions would have been unsuccessful.”