Cricket: Players have grounds for pitch complaints

Don't bother talking to the players about the new warrant-of-fitness scheme for domestic cricket grounds. In a week in which Hamilton ground authorities conceded they might have to wait two years before hosting another international, further pitch problems have come to light throughout the country.

The most visible was at Christchurch's Hagley Park on Thursday, when the pitch for the televised State Shield one-dayer between Canterbury and Auckland proved horribly slow, and was rubbished by players from both sides.

Canterbury captain Craig McMillan blasted the pitch as unsuitable for one-day cricket, and the victorious Auckland team - while not speaking publicly - were privately shaking their heads over the conditions. Hagley Park apparently has a hatched grass mat that ensures pedestrian pace and low bounce, guaranteeing a war of attrition rather than a high-scoring shoot-out.

To make matters worse for the Aucklanders, there was no ice laid on at the ground for medicinal use and the game's Duckworth-Lewis calculations (pages of usually computer-generated data) were hand-written.

The concerns over Christchurch followed a ridiculously one-sided affair at Invercargill's Queens Park, and some dark mutterings about the freshness of Oamaru's Centennial Park, and Palmerston North's Fitzherbert Park.

New Zealand Cricket Players Association boss Heath Mills yesterday confirmed the concern over the state of the country's pitches, saying it was important that players were given a suitable stage to excel.

He said there were also concerns that the new WOF system employed by NZC this year had not been able to weed out the substandard pitches until it was far too late.

"It's possibly time for everyone to take another look at the WOF system so that we can ensure that all grounds - not just some - are meeting the required standards," he said.

"The NZCPA have been working with NZC on the issue of grounds for some time and we thought we'd made headway with the WOF concept."

But Mills said the problems experienced for the New Zealand-World XI one-dayer at Hamilton demonstrated that the system relied on a more robust application than had been the case.

The Hamilton pitch block was relaid last April, but was apparently not given enough time to sufficiently compact, contributing to a farcical match in which just 163 runs were scored in 36 overs.

The upshot was that the scheduled one-dayer against Australia on March 2 transferred to Wellington.

Westpac Park Stadium management board chairwoman Glenda Saunders said yesterday that the venue might be on the international outer for another two years if that's what it takes to get it right.

"It may be a couple of seasons before we get another international one-dayer," she said.

"We tried quickly this time, less than a year since it was laid, and we're not about to do that twice unless someone can say to me and the board it will be absolutely top-class next year.

"If we have to play a couple of seasons of domestic cricket on it to get it right then that's what we'll do."

Mills said one solution could involve reducing the pool of first-class venues around the country to concentrate resources, ensuring the best possible chance of good pitches.

He pointed to Otago's move to centralise its resources at the renovated University Oval as a step that other regions might need to take.

"Some good pitches have been produced. Reports from the Basin Reserve and Eden Park have been positive."