Andy Atkinson is the ICC Chief Pitch Inspector, a position that takes him all over the world. Currently, he is preparing wickets for the up and coming World Cup on the sub-continent. Here, he talks to David W Smith about how he stumbled into being a cricket groundsman


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CC chief pitch inspector, Andy Atkinson, has a greater knowledge of cricket pitches around the world than anybody else on the planet. When you have to deal with monsoons and baking heat in the sub-continent, as well as freezing temperatures in Scotland, you learn to be adaptable. Essex-born Andy has worked for the ICC since 1998. He liaises with the curators and groundsmen in the countries where the ICC are staging their tournaments, which include the World Cup, World Twenty20 and Champions Trophy.


“I work in collaboration with the local


groundstaff at all venues. I advise them and help them plan their work. I am not there to step on people’s toes but, if requested, I am happy to don shorts and get out on the field,” Andy said. “In some cases the local curator runs the show. Others are happy for me to assume control for the duration.” Each event demands intensive planning. Andy inspects the tournament venues and training facilities two years in advance of tournaments. He assesses the suitability of pitches and practice facilities and informs local groundstaff about the ICC’s requirements


It is not simply a case of finding


grounds for games. For the World Cup 2007 in the Caribbean, for example, the ICC needed eight main tournament venues, but they also wanted another twenty-six venues to allow each country to hold team practice sessions. “The Caribbean venues needed to be acceptable to international teams, but most were club grounds which had to be renovated. In the interim, detailed planning and renovation programmes were discussed with the local organising committees to ensure work was completed on time and the facilities were tested months prior to the tournament,” Andy said.


Andy’s Caribbean experience went smoothly. But, there have been occasions when extreme conditions have made his job a race against time. One of his greatest challenges came when he was asked to prepare grounds for the ICC Knock-Out (now known as the ICC Champions Trophy) on a limited budget, in Nairobi, Kenya. It was his first job for the ICC back in 1998-2000, and it turned out to be a baptism of fire. The event was for all Test-playing nations, plus Kenya, and the schedule was for ten one-day internationals in fifteen days, on five pitches at the Nairobi Gymkhana ground. There were another five practice grounds to prepare. The condition of the grounds was poor. “Our first visit, in July 1998, coincided with the rainy season. The grass on the outfield was twelve inches high at most


sites, and all the grounds were flooded. They asked me if I could get the fields ready by September 2000. I said ‘yes’, but I must admit that I had my fingers crossed,” Andy said. Andy spent from July 1999 until September 2000 working at the Nairobi Gymkhana ground on a part-time basis, with about twenty groundstaff. They applied 400 tonnes of sand to the outfield, by hand, for levelling and smoothing the surface. “The pitch block was in need of severe


renovation, such as scarification, aeration, levelling and replanting, which all had to be done by hand, as most of the equipment, apart from mowing and scarification machinery, was not available in Kenya. All 15 tonnes of clay for the pitches had to be broken down and crushed into usable sizes by hand prior to dressing and levelling,” Andy said. “It was not feasible to reconstruct the pitch block in the time available, and be certain it would be one hundred percent satisfactory for the tournament.” “In the end, all went well with good


reviews at the completion, and this was achieved during eight months of drought in Nairobi. I’m as proud of what we did there as of anything I’ve done for the ICC.”


Andy is currently preparing pitches for the ICC World Cup, which is in Asia from February to early April 2011. The planning is particularly complex because the tournament is spread over three Test- playing nations, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Andy has already made five extensive trips to each country to supervise work, and there will be many more visits. There are thirteen grounds being used for the matches, and dozens more for practice. The grounds are hundreds of miles apart, which means catching a lot of aeroplanes, as well as grappling with different conditions. “In a vast country like India the climate is different from one place to another. In Mumbai, it is relatively simple; it rains from June until the end of August, and it is always hot and humid, at around 25°- 30°C. Once the monsoon stops it becomes very hot, about 30°-40°C, or more, and normally it’s very dry for the next period of time until the following monsoon starts in June. Grass growth is very good all year round, and the major issues are irrigation and protecting the pitches from the sun,” Andy said. Northern venues, like Delhi, Ahmedabad and Mohali, are quite different. “They are extremely hot from March to June, normally around 40°C plus, though I experienced a temperature of 54°C in Mohali in June last year. But, because they are near to the Himalayas, they actually have a winter with frosts and fog. The temperatures are also quite low 65


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