As the jobs across the world were getting Bangalored, out came a book called “World is Flat.” Similar flattening effect has been witnessed across the Cricketing world. The effect is so much so that it no longer is easy to differentiate a perfect batting beauty in Mohali to one found in Melbourne or Johannesburg. Just like the flattening the world phenomenon helped the countries like India, Russia and China to establish themselves as economic super-powers, the flattening of Cricket pitches helped India, Pak and Sri Lanka to stake their claim as emerging cricketing super powers. India has leveraged the power of slam bang cricket to such an extent that it is easy to argue that the cricketing epicentre has well and truly shifted to the sub-continent.


This flattening effect has produced look-alike strips and the world has gotten used to the run glutton that T20s and ODIs can be these days. Surprisingly, the last decade saw more than fifty scores of 600+ runs in the test Cricket. So at one end, as the spectators thronged the stadia to witness batsmen dominate bowlers of all genre, the game itself was losing a bit of its sheen as ‘’an unpredictable” game. You no longer have to wait until the proverbial fat lady sings to know which way game is tilting. Batsmen possessing techniques as ordinary as road-side cutting chaai, dare to cut the likes of Anil Kumble through point and gully. Point being, the flat tracks could instill a false sense of bravado in most modest of batsmen. >:-(

All’s not over though. Not yet. Frequently we see well fought games going down to the wire. In most of these games, the bowlers who maintain the tight leash when things are going awry, make the difference between a heroic chase or a 3 run victory. And that is where the real pull of the game lies in. So even though the teams posting 350 plus totals on board are a great turn-on to the spectators, the real orgasm ;-P is when the bowlers bend it back to stop the chasing team from achieving the unachievable-a little succour for the men who hurl the cherry, get smashed and then endure nerve numbing heckling by the spectators on the fence.

To restore the balance (and sanity if you like), comes up a venue or two who dares to leave some grass on the track, just to make the batsmen smell a bit of cherry when they open things up. Wasn’t it an out of ordinary sight when Zaheer went past Dilshan’s edge twice before he came closer to get an edge that landed in safe as house gloves of Mahendra Singh Dhoni? :-) A bit of due and grass on the Kotla track made that dismissal possible. Such a great delight! Soon, that delight turned into nightmare as the same grass proved Kotla’s undoing to be called unfit for play. New Zealand received its share of flak when they dared to prepare tracks that made the batsmen bounce to the tunes of bowlers back in 02-03. The result? :smirk:

The spectator friendly flat tracks are mushrooming all over- be it near the beaches of Barbados, chill in the Christchurch or the looming clouds over Lord’s. The Kotla fiasco and the attempt to prepare a sporting track will be nipped in its bud by our tendency to over-compensate the batsmen. Very soon, the same Kotla track would turn in to a grass-less, barren, batting beauty where batsmen will plunder the bowlers through the line of the ball. Spectators will queue up yet again to screech their throats out when a perfectly pitched delivery from faster men will disappear over the mid-wicket fence. The BCCI coffers will fill up, sponsors will line up and bowlers, well sadly, they will be relegated to the status of menial blue collar working populace. Flattening has its undesirable consequences after all. :down:

Barren pitches will have the same effect that barren earth has on the living beings- it makes them extinct. From Copenhagen to Kathmandu, "Go Green" seems to be the mantra everywhere. Can I wish a little bit more of green on the pitches in 2010? That could just be the game’s next life-line. :-)