The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has appealed to the International Cricket Council (ICC) against the rating given to the Holkar Stadium, Indore. In the third Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, India suffered a loss by nine wickets. Following the match, ICC had given a "poor" rating to the pitch.
"The BCCI sources said that an appeal was always on the cards as the rating appears to have been given in haste. The match referee's adjudication of the pitch came just hours after the Test ended," Cricbuzz reported.
The review can further work in the favour of the Indore pitch as the BCCI will try to revise the rating from "poor" to "below average" if possible. A two-member committee of the ICC is set to look into the matter.
The Indore pitch which received criticism from several players and experts was been given rating a rating of "poor" under the ICC Pitch and Outfield Monitoring Process on March 3.
The ICC Match Referee Chris Broad had said: “The pitch, which was very dry, did not provide a balance between bat and ball, favouring spinners from the start. The fifth ball of the match broke through the pitch surface and continued to occasionally break the surface providing little or no seam movement and there was excessive and uneven bounce throughout the match."
Following the report submitted by ICC Match Referee Chris Broad after consultation with both Rohit Sharma and Steve Smith, the Holkar Stadium received three demerit points.
According to the ICC Pitch and Outfield Monitoring Process, "a venue will be suspended from hosting any international cricket for a period of 12 months if it accumulates five or more demerit points over a five-year rolling period."
In the third Test, the hosts were bowled out for 163 in their second innings, leaving Australia with a target of just 76 runs. The pitch which made batters from both sides struggle was in favour of the spinners. Out of the 31 wickets that fell during the third Test, 26 were taken by the spinners, only four were taken by the pacers, and one was run out.
Recently, the ICC changed its decision on the Rawalpindi pitch after the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) had appealed against the rating. The pitch was initially given a rating of "below average" and also bagged one demerit point. However, in the revised decision and withdrew the punitive measure to the stadium.
