WEST INDIES TEAM MAY PROTEST ABOUT OLD TRAFFORD PITCH

Greymouth Evening Star, 13 June 1950, Page 6

WEST INDIES TEAM MAY PROTEST ABOUT OLD TRAFFORD PITCH

• LONDON, June 12.—The West Indies cricketers are expected to send an official protest to the Cricket Board of Control about the Old Trafford pitch. The West Indies captain, John Goddard, said today, before play began on the fourth day of the match: “Sporting pitches are all very well, but this is something more. It is the worst that I have ever seen, and it could have been highly dangerous. Fortunately foi’ England, Hines Johnson, our fast bowler, pulled a muscle in his first spell of bowling. Had he been fit throughout the match, I am afraid that I should have been placed in a predicament whether to allow him to bowl. .I am only a slow medium bowler, but I could make the ball rear chest and sometimes head high. If Johnson had bowled for long, I am certain that there would have been several nasty accidents.” The consensus of opinion, both of the England and the West Indies players, is that, while the Lancashire Ground Committee is to be commended for an attempt to provide a pitch that would ensure a finish to the Test, they unwittingly have gone to the other extreme. The groundsman was told that the pitch must not be watered during the seven days immediately preceding the match, and the use of a heavy motor roller was also banned. The limited preparation to the Test . pitch meant that, in the absence of rain for several days before the game, the pitch was dry and dusty at the start.