CRICKET West Indies (CWI) head curator Kent Crafton believes the six ICC T20 World Cup venue pitches under his watch were “quite ready” but lacked proper management over the month-long tournament.
Nine venues were used for this year’s hosting; six in the Caribbean – three in the US. Of the six in Crafton’s care, three pitches – Providence Stadium in Guyana, Brian Lara Cricket Academy (BLCA) in Trinidad and Arnos Vale Ground in St Vincent – were heavily criticised internationally for being too bowler-friendly.
Additionally, the drop-in pitches in New York and Florida also came under fire for uneven bounce.
Despite promising to be a batsman’s paradise, bowlers thrived in the tournament with no centuries and 11 times teams were bowled out for less than 100 runs.
Speaking on the Antigua on the Mason & Guest show in Barbados on July 2, Crafton said weeks of extremely hot weather before the tournament affected the finished product.
“Generally, I would say, at some venues I was extremely happy, others not so much,” he said.
He said there were “a number of reasons” why things went wrong.
“First of all, we entered a very strange weather pattern and in April, even March, in some islands it was an extremely hot and dry period. I must say we all worked that period as strong as we can, in terms of getting our operations done.
“All the venues, we put in the work that was needed in terms of rehabilitating our squares (pitch) and getting them up to scratch. Generally, we were quite ready. Certain things didn’t work according to plan, but based on what I could say could have been (the problem), the management of our squares during that long period, I think it was one of our shortcomings.”
For the first semi-final in Trinidad, which featured Afghanistan versus 2024 T20 World Cup runners-up South Africa, the BLCA pitch was a nightmare of batsmen with uneven bounce and exaggerated seam movement.
Afghanistan perished for 56 in 11.5 overs and the Proteas, despite their own struggles, were triumphant in 8.5 overs. After the match, Afghanistan coach Jonathan Trott condemned the pitch.
“That’s not the pitch that you want to have a match, a semi-final of a World Cup, on – plain and simple. It should be a fair contest. I’m not saying it should be flat completely with no spin and no seam movement, but you shouldn’t have batsmen worrying about going forward and the ball flying over their head. You should be confident in your foot movement and being able to hit through the line or use your skills,” Trott said.
[caption id="attachment_1094172" align="alignnone" width="892"] CWI head curator Kent Crafton. -[/caption]
Mason deemed the Trinidad pitch “strange” and asked Crafton what he thought happened in the lead-up to the semi-final.
“It was strange,” Crafton said. “There were a number of cracks and the pre-preparation wasn’t done according to our plan. It was just a little too dry when the preparation started.”
He did not go into further detail on his BLCA assessment.
However, Crafton explained the process t
