Venue would’ve been banned if it was India: Former players slam ICC for poor New York pitch in T20 World Cup

The voices against the pitch at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York grew stronger and louder after the India vs Ireland T20 World Cup match. The murmurs were already there after Sri Lanka were bowled out for 77 and South Africa took 18.2 overs to chase it down in the venue’s international debut. They turned out into a chorus after Ireland were bowled out for 96 by India, and players from both sides suffered body blows on Wednesday.

Ireland batter Harry Tector, India captain Rohit Sharma and wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant were hit on various parts. Rohit, who had to retire hurt after being struck on the right biceps, said the pitch continued to offer excessive seam movement throughout the match and did not ease out.

Movement off the pitch was not the only concern. It became extremely difficult for batters to get going as the pitch offered variable bounce. Some balls jumped awkwardly from a good length while a few kept as low as below the knee. Even the best of batters struggled to judge the pace off the pitch.

“(We are) trying to control the controllable. It was a challenging wicket, and we were expecting a challenging wicket because we played a practice game here, so we knew what to expect,” said India batting coach Vikram Rathour in the post-match press conference. “We need to find a way to deal with it and we have enough skills in the team and enough experience in the team to deal with it. We should be fine,” the former India opener said.

The Ireland coach, Heinrich Malan, was not as forgiving. “I guess when you look at T20 cricket, you want to see runs and boundaries, isn’t it? So, you can make your own conclusion whether it’s a 96 wicket. At the end of the day, you’ve got to try and do things well, whichever way you do them, whether it’s bat or ball first. We’ll obviously reassess the way we go about our business over the next 24 hours with a quick turnaround and look to be a little bit better on Friday,” he said.

If such a pitch was in India, the venue would not have got more matches

India’s 2007 T20 World Cup final’s Player of the match Irfan Pathan was also very critical of the wicket.

“Look, we definitely want to promote cricket in America, but this pitch is not safe for players. If we had a pitch like this in India, a match would never be played there again for a very long time,” he said on Star Sports.

He added, “This pitch is definitely not good. I mean, we are talking about the World Cup here, not even a bilateral series.”

Former Zimbabwe captain and England head coach Andy Flower said the pitch bordered on “dangerous”.

“I’ve got to say that is not a good surface to play an international match on. It’s bordering on dangerous,” Flower said on ESPNCricinfo.

“You saw the ball bouncing from a length both ways, so skidding low occasionally but in the main bouncing unusually high and striking people on the thumb, on the gloves, on the helmet and making life very, very difficult for any batsman.”

“The Indian quicks were good enough to exploit it, you’ve got to give that to them. They kept their game plan really simple, they hit the deck hard on a good length and that was all you needed to do,” he said. “It proved very, very tricky batting conditions for any side, let alone a smaller cricketing nation like Ireland taking on the giants of India”.

Former India cricketer Mohammad Kaif said: “Applause for Rohit Sharma’s half-century. New York easily the most difficult pitch in the world. Not a good advertisement for cricket in US.”

The same venue will also host Sunday’s big-ticket India vs Pakistan match.