BCCI contests ICC’s assessment of the Indore pitch as “bad”

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has received an appeal from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) about the “poor” grade given to the Indore surface on March 3. At Holkar Cricket Stadium, India and Australia played the third Test of the recently finished Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023. Australia won the match by nine wickets to earn their first victory in the four-match series after dropping the first two games.

Due to the quick conclusion of the game in Indore, match official Chris Broad gave the field a “bad” rating and three demerit points. According to ICC regulations, “a venue will be suspended from hosting any international cricket for a period of 12 months when it accumulates five demerit points (or crosses that threshold), and a venue will be suspended from staging any international cricket for 24 months when it reaches the threshold of 10 demerit points.”

On March 3, the ICC released the referee’s judgement, and it was reported that both captains Rohit Sharma and Steve Smith concurred with it.

“The extremely dry surface did not give a balance between the bat and the ball, favouring spinners right away. The fifth ball of the game broke through the pitch’s surface, and subsequent balls occasionally did the same, causing little to no movement in the seams and causing the game’s bounce to be excessive and uneven “The ICC cited Broad’s statement.

A BCCI source has verified that the appeal was always on the card because the referee’s decision was made in a hurry, mere hours after the game ended, according to a Cricbuzz report.

The two-member ICC committee will now examine the referee’s evaluation and make a decision within 14 days. The Cricket Committee is led by former Indian captain and current BCCI President Sourav Ganguly, with Pakistan’s Wasim Khan serving as General Manager. But, the committee can choose another person to review the evaluation because of Ganguly’s prior association with the BCCI.