File photo of Sir Vivian Richards.
The cricket world divided over the rank turner of pitches at ongoing India vs England Test series, which saw the hosts rally to an unassailable 2-1 lead after losing the first Test in Chennai.
The corresponding two Tests in Chennai and Ahmedabad respectively saw England failed to score more than 165 over four innings with Virat Kohli & Co. exploiting the Poms age-old weakness against spinners by playing three spinners.
While most of the English cricket experts and former experts have vehemently criticised the Indian pitches, especially the newly-refurbished Motera ground, which couldn't host a Test match for more than two days, experts from the rest of the world have mostly felt that wickets in India are no surprise.
And the new entrant in the list is none other than West Indies great Sir Vivian Richards, who felt the moaning and groaning over the pitches need to stop as the perception about the ball being only pacer-friendly in Test need to change.
"I've been asked questions recently about the Test match that was played in India… the second and third Test match against England. And I am a little confused about the question really because there seems to be a lot of moaning and groaning about the wicket that they were playing on. I just felt that the ones who are moaning, in my opinion, should realise that there are times that you're going to get a seaming track, a ball that is basically jumping off a good length and everyone thinks that's a problem for batters. There are times batters sometimes cope with that," Richards said in a video posted on his Facebook page
He further criticised English batsmen for not preparing beforehand for the Indian conditions, which has been historically spin-friendly.
"But now you've seen the other side, and this is why I think it was given the name Test match cricket, because of the test of the mind and will and everything else that goes with it when you're competing. And the complaints have been that the wicket is spinning too much and all that sorts of stuff. This is another side of the coin guys. People seem to forget that if you're going to India, you should expect that. You are going to spin land. You should basically prepare yourself to know what you're going to encounter," he said.
