With the purpose of encouraging fairness and keeping a level playing field, the International Cricket Council (ICC) has suggested that pitch curators should construct well-balanced playing grounds for the upcoming 2023 ODI World Cup in India. This endeavor tries to reduce the influence of home advantage and ensure healthy competition among the teams.
Andy Atkinson, the chief curator at the ICC, gave a clear message to the curators in charge of getting the pitches ready throughout the 10 designated venues. These venues, plus a couple more for warm-up matches, have the burden of hosting the tournament’s games.
The current tendency of the host country emerging successful in the ODI World Cup has sparked worries. With India in 2011, Australia in 2015, and England in 2019 all winning the championship on their home turf, it clearly garnered attention. The ICC is quite anxious about this advantage and it led Atkinson to emphasize the necessity of constructing surfaces that lead to exciting and balanced matches.
Based on information from a source at the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), who was present at the meeting, Atkinson emphasized that curators should stand firm against any pressure from the home teams. Instead, the focus should be on crafting pitches that enable fair competition for all sides.
“The focus should be on preparing a wicket that’s as sporting as possible and not something that favors the home side,”
“The wickets will vary as the nature of the soil isn’t the same everywhere. But he wants such tracks that promise games going the distance.” Atkinson was quoted as saying by the Telegraph.
The tournament opener between England and New Zealand will kick off at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on October 5th. Additionally, the highly anticipated battle between arch-rivals India and Pakistan is set for October 14 at the same location. Embarking on their journey, Team India will kick off their campaign on October 8 at the iconic MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.
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