PITCH Doctoring ...


Cheating or home advantage? Stuart Kerrison, Head Groundsman at Essex County Cricket Club, suggests that it is in the club’s interest to use all the advantages they have available to achieve success, including home advantage!


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Most spectators would say they would like to see an even contest with neither bat nor ball dominating


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f all the sports played on our green and pleasant land, cricket is, perhaps, the one which is most affected by the playing surface. Evenness of bounce, pace, seam movement and spin are all dependant on the pitches we produce. The skill of the groundsman to be able to produce the type of pitch required can go a long way to influencing matches, titles and even careers. Is it unfair or unethical to use home ground advantage, or is it part of the game to be used in a team’s strategy? Will it put the groundsman under undue pressure because of the threat of a deduction of points for a sub-standard pitch, (in both four day and one day competitions), loss of reputation or even job that could come with such a stigma? With promotion and relegation from both the County Championship and the one-day leagues, plus the possible large amounts of money involved in Twenty20 now, surely it is in a club’s interest to use all the advantages available to achieve success, including home advantage. Most cricket pitches are batsman friendly these days. Giving the bowlers a small ray of hope will surely make for more interesting cricket and, hopefully, a better balance between bat and ball. Obviously, there shouldn’t be a free for all with regards to pitch preparation, and there are fairly stringent regulations in place at present to stop extreme cases of doctoring. You could make a point that gluing pitches is a form of doctoring by artificially making a surface that batsmen should thrive on. However, there is leeway in the regulations for groundsmen to produce pitches giving the aforementioned balance. A lot of county groundsmen have been at the same club for many years and feel some loyalty to that county, so it is only natural that there would be some assistance for the home side. After all, the pitch is the same for both sides, although one side may benefit more from any help rendered, surely it is in the interest of cricket that teams should be balanced with specialist bowlers of all types. There is a school of thought that good bowlers don’t need help and bad ones aren’t worth helping! And, whilst there is little doubt this is true, we still have to remember who employs us, and I don’t think it is wrong of employers to expect some form of home advantage assistance from employees. Was it wrong for long ball


football teams like Wimbledon FC to leave the grass longer when skilful passing teams like Manchester United came to their ground? The blandness of flat pitches, which are then adjudged ‘good’ by the governing body but are, in fact, making pitches the same around the country and, combined with the points penalties for pitches


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