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19 March 2024

ICC may penalise Lanka for 'poor' Galle pitch

Sri Lankan bowler Rangana Herath, center, and teammates wait for the third umpire's decision after referring an appeal for a catch decision against Australia's captain Michael Clarke, unseen, during the first day of the first test cricket match between Australia and Sri Lanka in Galle Sri Lanka. (AP)

Published
By Allaam Ousman

The Galle international cricket stadium which survived a tsunami should be consigned to dustbin of history after laying out one of the worst pitches in the history of the game.

Australia hammered Sri Lanka by 125 runs in a Test which lasted just over three days after the hosts were shot out for 105 in the first innings in reply to Australia’s 273 on a dusty wicket.

Both captains blasted the dry wicket in the southern port city of Galle which has been a happy hunting ground for Sri Lanka’s retired spin great Muttiah Muralitharan.

But Sri Lanka were apparently beaten at their own game after laying a spin trap for the visitors.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) issuing a statement in Dubai announced on Monday said the pitch for the Galle Test has been rated as poor by Chris Broad, the member of the Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Match Referees who officiated in the Test.

The ICC’s General Manager – Cricket, David Richardson, and the ICC’s chief match referee, Ranjan Madugalle will now consider all the evidence, including studying video footage of the match and submissions from the host Board, before reaching their decision in due course.

Australia won the Test by 125 runs with 40 wickets falling for 841 runs in 289.5 overs.

In accordance with the ICC Pitch and Outfield Monitoring Process, which came into effect in 2006 and applies to all Tests, ODIs and T20Is, Broad submitted a report to the ICC expressing his concerns over the quality of the pitch.

Under clause 3, 4 and 5 of the regulations governing the process, the ICC has provided Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) with a copy of Broad’s report and requested the SLC to respond. The SLC now has 14 days to provide a reply to the ICC’s request.

Michael Clarke, celebrating his first win as Australian captain, said he had never played on a tougher pitch than the dustbowl prepared at Galle.

“Day one felt like day five out there,” Clarke said after his team took the lead in the three-Test series, Australia’s first in Sri Lanka since 2004.

Sri Lankan captain Tillakaratne Dilshan blamed the defeat on his team’s poor first innings total of 105.

“If there has to be one reason for the defeat, it must be our batting in the first innings when we managed only 105,” said Dilshan who also slammed the dry surface.

However, Sri Lanka’s ‘Sunday Times’ newspaper branded the wicket in Galle as “one of the worst wickets seen in Sri Lanka” where Test wickets fell before the completion of even three days.

“The wicket was a batsman’s nightmare and even the two half centuries scored by Australian batsmen Michael Hussey and Michael Clarke or the efforts of Lankan batsmen Mahela Jayawardena and Angelo Mathews were pieces of sheer workman like innings rather than authoritative stroke filled ones,” it said begging the question on why the pitch was doctored.

“The question is who is responsible for that wicket which lacked any character?”, it asked.

While Sri Lanka Cricket’s chief curator Anuruddha Polonnowita was available in Colombo, the Galle Stadium curator Jayananda Warnaweera was handed over the task of preparing the wicket under a new scheme of decentralising authority, the report said.

The ‘Sunday Times’ says that the Galle curator played to the whims of the Lankan senior players and prepared a turning dust bowl, not figuring out how effective Australia’s off spinner Nathan Lyon was going to be.

Lyon, while taking Sri Lankan’s best batsman Kumar Sangakkara in his very first ball in Test cricket, went on to bag a fiver, thus sparking off a huge Lankan batting collapse.

“A year ago during the reign of Muttiah Muralitharan, a turning wicket was certainly advantageous to Sri Lanka and the country had won many a match on that strength, but, still the wicket has been as not bad as the one prepared for this Test,” it said quoting knowledgeable sources.

Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting who celebrated his 100th Test win equated the Galle pitch to the infamous Mumbai surface of 2004.

Ponting said he had only seen one other pitch of similar quality in his career. That was the fourth Test between India and Australia at Wankhede Stadium in 2004, which was completed in little more than two days after the first day was all but lost to rain.

“Yeah (I can remember) one, we had one in Mumbai on which we had to chase 100 in the fourth innings and it was about halfway through the second day and we couldn’t get them,” Ponting told Cricinfo.

“I think we all knew when we saw the wicket two days out from the start of this game we knew it was going to be like this.

“It was very loose two days out and we couldn’t see how it was going to get any better. So it was a great toss to win and a good first innings total for us and that set the game up.”

Dilshan had commented on match eve that the pitch would start to turn after tea on the first day, but it was doing plenty from the first morning, as Rangana Herath’s first ball jumped and turned to kiss the edge of Shane Watson’s bat.