BCCI Goes Up Against ICC For 'Poor' Rating Of Indore Pitch

image-lf71qt4mIndian coach Dravid inspecting the Indore pitch (AP Photo)

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has issued a formal appeal against the International Cricket Council (ICC) for their review of Indore’s playing surface. The Holkar Stadium in Indore staged the third Test match of the recently-concluded Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023, which saw the visiting Australian team taking home the honours by nine wickets.

The match overall lasted a little above two days of play, with the Australians hunting down their 78-run target within the opening session of Day 3. Around 26 of the 31 fallen wickets fell to the spinners, as the fast bowlers received little to no assistance from the surface.

Nathan Lyon benefited the most from the turning track, as he snared 11 victims in the match including a match-winning eight-fer in the second Indian innings.

ICC Match Referee Chris Broad lambasted the playing conditions used for the match, and rated the pitch as “poor”. Broad in his review stated that the surface assisted spinners for the start and there was no balance between bat and ball.

ICC to look into BCCI’s objection of pitch review

The BCCI has been hinting out on raising objection of ICC’s review for the Indore pitch for a while. Referee Broad condemned the playing conditions by handing out three demerit points to the venue.

As per the ICC rules, a venue can be suspended from staging international cricket for 12 months if it accumulates five or more demerit points. The suspension extends up to 24 months of no international play if it garners up to 10 points.

According to sources, the BCCI believes that the ratings were hastily handed out by the referee, and there is room for review.

A two-member ICC committee will have to respond to the objection within 14 days of receiving the appeal. One of the members would be ICC general manager Wasim Khan. Sourav Ganguly, who is currently the chairman of ICC Cricket Committee, was slated to be the other member. However, the former Indian captain will likely be replaced for the matter considering the appeal is made by the BCCI.