The pitch at the Wanderers, that played host to the third and final Test between South Africa and India last week, has received a 'poor' rating, and the stadium received three demerit points for the same, the ICC announced on Tuesday (January 30).
The demerit points will remain active for a rolling five-year period, during which if the Wanderers reaches the threshold of five demerit points, it will be suspended from staging any international cricket for a period of 12 months.
"The pitch prepared for the final Test was a poor one. It had excessively steep and unpredictable bounce, and excessive seam movement," referee Pycroft said. "It deteriorated quickly as the match progressed, which made batting extremely difficult and hazardous, resulting in the medical staff from both the sides having to come onto the field of play multiple times to treat their batsmen.
Several players from both teams were at the receiving end of the variable bounce on the pitch. It started misbehaving on the second day of the play, when Hashim Amla got hit a couple of times. The situation worsened the following day when Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara, Amla as well as Dean Elgar received blows and had to be treated mid-pitch. The play was halted multiple times, on Day 3, as the umpires and the two captains held discussions with the match referee.
However, players were taken off the field once Elgar copped a blow on the helmet off a short ball. The play was called off earlier than usual but Pycroft, after discussing with the captains, decided that the pitch was not dangerous enough for the match to be abandoned.
"As the on-field umpires are also responsible for the players' safety, they expressed concerns about the behaviour of the pitch, and debated after day three if it was appropriate to continue the match. In the end, the umpires made the decision to continue and the Test reached its natural conclusion on day four. However, there was still excessive variable bounce and seam movement when the Test match ended," he added.
Former South African batsman and match referee Mike Procter, spoke to Cricbuzzduring the course of the game and admitted that he would have rated the Jo'burg pitch 'poor'.
Michael Holding, while commentating on air, too severely criticised the pitch, rating it '2 out of 100'. He was more vociferous when speaking to journalists. "It's a s**t pitch," he said. "You can interpret that. They should have called it off when (Murali) Vijay got hit. This is not a cricket pitch, this is dangerous. Call it off, forget it. You can't play cricket on that. I have no idea what has gone wrong but I know it's not a good cricket pitch."
Elgar, who top-scored in the game across the four innings, also noted that the game should have been called off keeping in the mind the safety of the players.
India won the match by 63 runs in under four days but lost the series 1-2 to the hosts.
© Cricbuzz
However, players were taken off the field once Elgar copped a blow on the helmet off a short ball. The play was called off earlier than usual but Pycroft, after discussing with the captains, decided that the pitch was not dangerous enough for the match to be abandoned.
"As the on-field umpires are also responsible for the players' safety, they expressed concerns about the behaviour of the pitch, and debated after day three if it was appropriate to continue the match. In the end, the umpires made the decision to continue and the Test reached its natural conclusion on day four. However, there was still excessive variable bounce and seam movement when the Test match ended," he added.
Former South African batsman and match referee Mike Procter, spoke to Cricbuzzduring the course of the game and admitted that he would have rated the Jo'burg pitch 'poor'.
Michael Holding, while commentating on air, too severely criticised the pitch, rating it '2 out of 100'. He was more vociferous when speaking to journalists. "It's a s**t pitch," he said. "You can interpret that. They should have called it off when (Murali) Vijay got hit. This is not a cricket pitch, this is dangerous. Call it off, forget it. You can't play cricket on that. I have no idea what has gone wrong but I know it's not a good cricket pitch."
Elgar, who top-scored in the game across the four innings, also noted that the game should have been called off keeping in the mind the safety of the players.
India won the match by 63 runs in under four days but lost the series 1-2 to the hosts.
© Cricbuzz
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