ART OF CURATORSHIP

The science of pitch preparation

by MS Ramakrishnan • Last updated on

"I would say Wankhede has the best pitches in the country and KSCA (Chinnaswamy stadium) comes second" - Viswanathan © Cricbuzz

Sachin Tendulkar walking out to the centre of the Wankhede and touching the pitch to his eyes in a thanks giving gesture after bidding goodbye to international cricket clearly explains the importance the playing surface in the game of cricket.

The size of cricket's heart is 22 yards long and rectangular in shape. Its caretakers are called curators, who bear fluctuating weather conditions and literally hold conversations with the surface trying to understand them, just like how a mother treats her beloved child. Yet, they quite often don't get the recognition they deserve and criticism is a next door neighbour. The job looks all simple from the outside, but it needs a lot of skill and understanding of mother nature.

It begins from studying the soil in use, knowing the knack of choosing the right kind of soil, knowing how much to water, knowing how much to roll, knowing how to inject life into a pitch, mastering the reactivity... The list goes on.

One such knowledgeable groundsman was PR Viswanathan, who was in the BCCI pitch committee and also acted as South Zone's head curator. The BCCI and TNCA felicitated him at the MA Chidambaram stadium in Chennai recently (February 14) as he brought the curtains down on his career as a curator.

"The journey started from our wonderful Chepauk," Viswanathan proudly says briefing about his career.

A MSC Botany student from Christian College, Tambaram, it was one of his family friends' advice that paved the way for his journey as a curator.

"I was asked if I wanted to try out gardening/landscaping. I agreed and started and then after a while Chemplast approached me to prepare a ground. Later I became a curator at Chepauk and that's how it all started," he patiently briefs.

He was associated with the BCCI from 2002-03 to 2017 and also published a paper on red soil in New Zealand Turf Institute - the first Indian to do so in a foreign journal. He was a major contributor in devising the curator's manual that is given to the personnel attending the BCCI Curator Certification Course.

He begins to dwell into details of curatorship and ways to improve...

Reading the soil

One of the most crucial things for a curator is to understand the soil that is best suited for use in that particular region. Having seen it all in his career, Viswanathan explains how the red soil from Western India is different from the red soil available in the other parts of the country.

"In the red soil that we get in Mumbai, the water will go and help the grass to come back. In other places, the grass won't grow back. That's why we find after two matches that whatever grass was there, it will disappear. The grass rejuvenation is very poor in the red soil in other places," the 74-year-old says, warning that it is very easy for one to get carried away by the red soil without knowing its actual behaviour.

Mumbai's rich quality red soil is the main reason why the Wankhede stadium sports some of the best pitches in the country. A keen follower of the game would agree that the fast bowlers get some movement off the pitch, the ball swings in the air, the bounce is mostly true, the spinners get some bite and batsmen also pile up the runs, making it a power-packed entertainment zone.

Game after game, the regrowth of grass helps groundsmen prepare pitches that deteriorate gradually, which is not the case with other red soils in the country.

He goes on to give details about other soils as well.

"If you take the black cotton soil, the water absorption is very high. When the water absorption is high, the soil will also swell. Soil becomes very soft when watered and very hard when it is dry. You get high density when it is dry. This is somewhat similar to what we get in Australia.

"The clay soil is normally about 2 microns here in India. Australian soils are about 1 microns. When the clay particles are very fine, you can make it very dense, which will help bounce. We get this sort of soil in Coimbatore, parts of Central India, Eden Gardens has this soil too, some parts of Andhra and Cuttack also have this. The soil which is 1 micron or below is called Smectite. We don't know what is the quantum of Smectite we have in our soils."

Soils vary in their characteristics, implying that the preparation methods need to be different. To help curators understand better, Viswanathan goes on to make an astute suggestion.

"At the moment the knowledge of the soil is very limited. This is precisely why I suggested to the BCCI that we should have a soil testing lab at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru, where you cater to the curators' exclusive needs."

"I would say Wankhede has the best pitches in the country and KSCA (Chinnaswamy stadium) comes second" - Viswanathan.

The need for a soil testing lab at NCA

Currently, if a curator needs to test the soil for cricket pitches, he has to go to a lab in one of the Agriculture Universities or IITs. The process is time consuming as it takes about one and half months - a duration that is way too long, potentially eating into the precious time available ahead/during a season. The results that come out are not very comprehensive either.

Viswanathan, who was coached by West Indies' Roy Gilchrist, explains how curators would benefit if BCCI set up an in-house testing centre at their newly planned 40-acre NCA facility on the outskirts of Bengaluru, expected to be ready in about two years time.

"The soil decides the pitch. The soil testing labs available in the country mostly cater to the construction industry. If we have our own facility, we can test for clay content, silt, sand content (fine, medium, core), then go for the pH. The clay content should be around 50-60%, pH should be between 6-7, the core sand content should not be more than 1%. These are all very important. pH and clay content will give a lot of information"

"We can test all the soils available across the country, keep collecting soil samples and test the ones which you think will be useful, then identify the right soil and put it to use. Let's say if I go to Ahmedabad and they say that the Rajkot soil is very good and it is available at a particular place, you can easily then suggest that it is the best soil available in Gujarat.

"Similarly if you take Tamil Nadu, Theni has the best clay sources in the country. Parts of Pollachi and Tirunelveli too have good resources. You identify soil samples that are good for pitches and when you need them for making pitches you can take it from those places. This way you can create a library of soils and thus one can refer to the collection of test results and decide the soil to be used when making a pitch."

It is understood that the facility would need a one-time investment of about 15-20 lakh in a 2500-3000 square foot space and a monthly expense of about 1 lakh.

Need for better research

A detailed research in pitch preparation methods is another area of improvement. At the moment, curators mostly operate on guess work as they do not have a great understanding of the way a certain soil reacts.

Information about the pitch developing density/hardness, the amount of rolling to be done, understanding when to stop levelling etc. are fields that need clarity. Having an association with a top university that is into research will be of great help, feels Viswanathan.

"BCCI should have a tie up with some of the leading universities which are interested in this sort of a work so that we can get more information related to pitch preparation in terms of soil, rolling, water movement, grass growth etc.

"You need to have really good knowledge which can come only from people who are really into the soils, studying it in greater depths. There needs to be a greater information for curatorship to proceed further. The research will tell us how a particular soil reacts to a particular method adopted by the curator during preparation. Soil testing is basic, but research takes you to the next step.

"Cranfield University in England and the ECB jointly did a research for three years or so. The research was done inside the lab, but they came out with some very informative, practical information which have been helpful for groundsmen in our country. Similarly, if the BCCI does something here, the curators will benefit in a large way," he illustrates at length.

Curators would also gain immensely from a few trial pitches with different soils at the NCA as it would help them experiment and have a better understanding in the preparation of playing surfaces.

Grounds need to have a bigger square

With the amount of cricket increasing, pitches on occasions don't get enough spare time between games. Just as how a human needs rest every single day to regain energy, playing surfaces too need time to recover to be sportive.

Most of the grounds in India have only around five, six pitches, which makes the handling tougher. If pitch number three is being used, pitch numbers two and four are bound to have a bit of wear and tear, thanks to the spikes of the fielders. This makes rotation of the pitches a little tricky.

"We should ideally have 10 to 12 pitches in a ground. All the venues should have a larger square so that you can do rotation better," Viswanathan opined.

Misconception about a grassy wicket

Better quality of pitches is directly proportional to better quality of cricket. Although high-scoring encounters are really engaging for the spectators, an even contest between bat and ball is widely anticipated and accepted in the cricketing fraternity.

Generally, it is assumed that grass on a pitch is all about fast bowlers. However, not many know what goes into the making of a pitch even if it has a green tinge to it. Viswanathan reveals why spinners can still be in the game even on a green top.

"The curators in India are advised to focus more on methods to provide assistance to spinners by preparing the landing area differently. The watering and rolling is done differently from the rest of the areas on the pitch so that the spinners too get some purchase apart from the help the fast bowlers get with the grass on the pitch.

"An ideal pitch is one which has bounce, helps the pacers, assists some turn, but at the same time allows batsmen to score runs," revealed Viswanathan, who was part of Tamil Nadu's Ranji Trophy squad.

Good co-ordination very important for neutral curators

One of the major changes the BCCI has brought about is the concept of neutral curators. The move was done to cut out unfair advantage for the home team. With this enforcement, a neutral curator goes well in advance to the reporting venue before the season begins and oversees all the handling.

However, it is quite natural that a curator from the South may not exactly know how the soil in the North behaves. The weather conditions too are different. To tackle this situation, there needs to be a good rapport between the neutral curator and the local groundsmen.

"Even though the neutral curator may have great knowledge, it is essential to have a good co-ordination with the local groundsmen for better understanding and functioning.

"I may have the skill, I may know how to prepare, but the man who works there throughout knows the soil better than me. I may have a lot of experience but mentally you have to accept that local knowledge is key," opined Viswanathan, who also suggested that it is better for curators to work in the same zone because of language barriers.

"As I said earlier, having a testing lab will greatly help neutral curators as they can acquire knowledge that they are otherwise unaware of," Viswanathan concludes.

***

A sporting pitch could turn into a batting beauty with an extra rolling or sprinkling of water. The line is very thin for groundsmen. Whatever experience and knowledge one may have, it is practically very tough for a curator to precisely deliver a pitch every single time, because the weather plays a role too. Life of a curator is not a smooth sail, after all everything is not in his hands.

© Cricbuzz