New Zealand Turf Culture Institute guru Keith McAuliffe discounts the El Nino theory for the state of pitches in this country this summer
Lynn McConnell13-Jan-2003New Zealand Turf Culture Institute guru Keith McAuliffe discounts the El Nino theory for the state of pitches in this country this summer.As both New Zealand and Indian teams have struggled to come to grips with pitches generally sharing the same characteristics of too much sideways movement during the National Bank Series, McAuliffe said that in his discussions with most of the turf managers this year, they had been happy with the preparation processes.He said all had time enough to have their pitches ready, except in the case of Westpac Park for the second Test and possibly Eden Park for the first One-Day International.One problem, he said, had been the fact that all the one-dayers had been played on new tracks, not having been used for matches beforehand.There was a lot more grass on pitches and this was the result of a particular push for more pace, bounce and carry as directed as policy by New Zealand Cricket.”This has been achieved and our pitches are not the slow, low dungers they were in the past.”You could perhaps argue that fine tuning is now needed to minimise the sideways movement,” he said.That tended to be the result of experience and application on the part of turf managers.There was also a need to get the surfaces even harder and McAuliffe said it would be necessary to look at some of the clays being used.”Clays that are difficult to dry are difficult to harden,” he said.In the portable trays being used in Auckland and Christchurch if particular types of clay are being used they are more difficult to harden.”However, I don’t think pitches are the only things causing the sideways movement,” he said.Another contributing factor was the amount of movement through the air.This was caused by nearly all the grounds for One-Day Internationals being enclosed stadia.”They are enclosed, they have sand-based outfields which need a lot of watering and our grasses are rye-based which also need a lot of water,” he said.And when sun gets on wetter outfields it creates greater movement through the air, which backs the theory expounded by Wellington researcher Brian Wilkins.Changing the type of grasses on stadia was not really an option because of their multi-use nature, McAuliffe said. He didn’t think stadium administrators would like to see brown outfields these days either.New Zealand turf managers were now growing grass pretty well, he said, but he wondered if they might be over-doing it. Lack of grass on pitches had been an issue in the past and while spinners had been largely unemployed in this series he said the ideal pitch was still one that brought all facets of the game into play.”You wouldn’t want spinners getting their wickets too easily on pitches that were too thatchy or too powdery.”Our turf managers are doing a much better job of renovating their pitches to remove plant material or thatch but it would be in everyone’s interests if pitches did dust up in long duration matches,” he said.McAuliffe said the use of hessian cloth to cover pitches during the days immediately before matches was because of the fear that pitches would dry out too quickly, especially when pitches were ready a day or two early and the ground staff wanted to hold them in their conditions.But McAuliffe wondered if they might be better off letting them deteriorate just a little, although that could be cause for some debate when turf managers have their end of season debrief with New Zealand Cricket’s operations manager John Reid.Interestingly, the NZTCI will be having an influence on pitch development in India because of the Board of Control for Cricket in India being concerned about the problems Indian batsmen face when overseas on wickets which cause the ball to move around.”They have been looking at more sporty pitches over there and we have given them some advice,” he said.New Zealand experts have been advising on pitch construction in India and are helping with the introduction of a training programme for pitch staff in India this year.McAuliffe said the NZTCI was also doing work with the Asian Cricket Council on grounds throughout the region and the Middle East.