Bay Oval ground staff win praise

Bay Oval staff rush covers on during the ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup final on Saturday. PHOTO/PHOTOSPORT

After six pool matches and the grand final of the ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup you could expect some fatigue to be setting in among the Bay Oval ground staff.

But for turf manager Jared Carter and his crew the overwhelming emotion was more about pride as the pitch, outfield and grass practice wickets were universally praised by the international television commentary team throughout the tournament.

Carter is proud of the effort by his team in the tournament that has put the Bay Oval into the top tier of international venues.

"I am very happy really. It is always tough when you have that many games so close to each other and especially with the weather we have had. We have had many cloudy days and then go to the other extreme of beautifully fine and ridiculously hot days so to keep all the moisture in and to have achieved what we have achieved has been pretty amazing," Carter said.

The one international coach who did make the effort to pass on his praise was the most famous of them all, Indian batting superstar Rahul Dravid.

"To be fair we haven't talked to them a hell of a lot. Probably the only coach who has done a lot of talking to us is Rahul Dravid. He has been here for the pool games as well as the final. He was a nice, very genuine guy and liked to talk about a lot of things about cricket, not just the pitch and facilities," Carter said.

"One time he wanted to be introduced to Kerry (Hill) the sprint coach down here as well. He has been a genuinely nice person which has reflected in a lot of things around the team as well.

"Most of the feedback has been from the ICC who are very happy with how things are going."

Next on the horizon for Carter and his team is the biggest match in terms of public appeal to be hosted at Bay Oval when England and New Zealand meet in a full 50-over ODI, day-night match on February 28.

He says there have been improvements and learnings from the World Cup which will be helpful in the future.

"Yes we have played around with rolling techniques and the grass cover and have got more confidence to leave a little more moisture in the wicket and with the grass cover to get a bit more pace out of the wicket.

"So yeah it has been good to have many games after each other. It just allows you to fine tune a few things rather than in past seasons we have had a double header and then that's kind of it until the next season."

Bay Oval Trust general manager Kelvin Jones says the tournament is part of a busy summer of cricket.

"We are well into ticking off what will be 15 international games of cricket in a really short time. The ground staff are a really small tight unit and it is a lot of work for a small group. I think everyone has done an amazing job and taken ownership.

"As an organisation and also as a region we should be really proud of the work that has been done locally to support this tournament."