Teams quell criticism of cricket pitch
PA Auckland Both Pakistan and New Zealand moved quickly yesterday to quell criticism of the Eden Park pitch where the third and deciding cricket test will begin tomorrow.
The pitch, badly affected by fungi which has killed off most of the grass, has been the main topic of discussion leading up to the test.
While New Zealand had a full net session in light drizzle on the No. 2 ground and Pakistan did some casual fielding on the main oval, the groundsman, Stuart Came-ron-Lee, lifted the covers to give Pakistan’s manager, Intikhab Alam, and three senior players a look at the strip. It has had grass clippings rolled into it and consequently is very green. But when those clippings are brushed off they will reveal a brown, bare pitch which should have spinners flexing their fingers in anticipation.
However, Intikhab pronounced the pitch a good one. “You can’t say it’s a bad wicket. It looks very g!l6satisfying,” he said, a remark which, given Pakistan’s gifted spin bowlers, could be read any number of ways. “When we saw it on television it was a different story. I think the groundsman has done a good job. The ball will get older quite quickly because of the surface and that will help the spinners.”
The New Zealand coach, Bob Cunis, took a philosophical line. “That’s the wicket so we’ve got to play on it. We have to prove we can play as well as they can on it. But I don’t think it’s as bad as people say. It looks reasonably hard.”
Mr Cunis said the state of the pitch might force a
rethink in the composition of the New Zealand side for the test. It has a squad of 15 and New Zealand was always going to play two spinners. Now the selectors will have to look at playing three, with the all-rounder, Dipak Patel, holding his place. If Patel, who made 0 and 2 in the second test in Wellington, misses out his place will go to batsman Mark Greatbatch. He took a full part in the practice yesterday, and his recently broken right thumb gave him no trouble. "I didn’t see any discomfort when he batted,” Mr Cunis said. "The only worry with ‘Paddy’ is he’s had no cricket recently. That is the concern.”
So although he is certainly in contention to come back into the side, Greatbatch might ultimately miss out not through injury but the desire to play the extra spinner. Mr Cunis said the squad would be reduced to 12 after today’s final practice.
Pakistan has three injury worries. Most crucial is the offspinner, Tauseef Ahmed, whose tour has been plagued by problems to his right ankle. He could scarcely raise a gentle jog as his team mates had a run around the oval yesterday, but Intikhab is confident he will be ready for the test.
“He is much better today than we expected. He won’t practise tomorrow, we don’t want to take any risks; Then we’ll win the toss and bat for two days. That would be great,” Intikhablaughed.
An opener, Rizwan-Uz-Zaman, damaged a thumb batting in the match against the Shell XI at Napier on Tuesday. It was very sore yesterday and will be x-rayed today. The wicket-keeper, Saleem Yousuf, has strained shoulder muscles but should be fit tomorrow.
• The promising Auckland wicket-keeper, Adam Parore, will join the New Zealand cricket team’s third test preparation.
Parore, who made an outstanding first-class debut against Otago last week-end, was invited to assist test keeper, lan Smith, in the team’s final practice sessions.
The 18-year-old law student is seen as one of New Zealand’s outstanding cricket prospects, and has been asked along to get the "feel” of a bigmatch atmosphere.
Parore’s five second innings catches against Otago matched a record set more than 100 years ago, and equalled this summer by lan Smith, Paul Kelly and Jeff Crowe.
And although his path to the first class game is for the moment blocked by Smith and Kelly, he sees no need to move outside the area to further his career. “Obviously there’s the opportunity to move elsewhere,” he said, “which is something quite a lot of players are doing these days.
“But I don’t think that’s for me. I’m only 18. There’s still plenty of time. I’ll just persevere. I mean, guys get injured every now and then, so there’s always the possi-
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Press, 23 February 1989, Page 44
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740Teams quell criticism of cricket pitch Press, 23 February 1989, Page 44
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