CT 2017: English curator gives higher priority to County game over CT semi-final

The English cricket administrators and the authorities take their cricket very seriously. They consider their domestic County Championships to be at par with the international matches. Well, one of the most recent happenings in English cricket seem to reveal the fact that they consider the County matches to be superior to the international games as well.

As per the reports in News18, the curator at Edgbaston refused to remove the artificial matting from the surface before the second semi-final of the ongoing edition of the ICC Champions Trophy. Apparently, the grounds men wanted to keep the pitch which would be used for the County matches safe from being run over by the spikes of the cricketers during the India v Bangladesh match.

Hence, an artificial covering was on the surface on one of the pitches for the entire duration of the semi-final game. The pitches are maintained by the ECB but during the international games, the ICC takes full control of the grounds and pitches. Amidst this situation, the refusal of grounds men to remove the matting comes as a matter of surprise.

Equal priorities?

The Warwickshire ground-staff in charge of maintaining the Edgbaston pitch clearly showed where the priorities lies for them. It was also suggested that the match referee for the India v Bangladesh game, Chris Broad, spoke to the grounds men regarding the same. But, all in vain as the matting remained there for the entire game. The curators opted to keep the covers on as the Warwickshire team is set to play their next domestic fixture at the venue against Lancashire.

“They were told that this cant remain fixed but the curator was adamant that it wont be removed as that particular pitch that has been covered is the one on which Warwickshire will be playing their next County game against Lancashire,” one of the sources quoted.