ICC T2o pitches in New York gets ‘satisfactory’ ratings, raises eyebrows

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has rated the pitches at Nassau County Cricket Stadium in New York as ‘satisfactory’ raising a lot of eyebrows.

The drop-in pitches in New York were the talk of the town after players and experts opined that the pitches were not suitable for international cricket.

After a longish delay, the ICC published the pitch ratings on their website.

Eight matches were played at the Nassau County Cricket Stadium out of which six matches got a satisfactory rating. Only two matches — India vs Ireland and Sri Lanka vs South Africa – received a below-par rating from the ICC.

The much hyped India vs Pakistan contest also received a satisfactory rating from the ICC match referees, who are in charge of rating the grounds and the pitches.

All eight matches played at the Nassau County Cricket Stadium in New York were low-scoring matches and there was a lot of criticism on the pitch. The average first innings score in eight matches was 107.6 and a sluggish outfield compounded issues.

The drop-in pitches, which are commonly used in many parts of the world including in Australia and England, were prepared under the supervision of Adelaide Cricket Ground’s chief curator Damian Hough.

The pitches were prepared by the LandTek Group and were made at the LTG Sports Turf One in Florida from December 2023, six months before the tournament began on June 1.

The pitches were then transported to New York in a fleet of 20 tractor trailers. The drop-in pitches made the 1,250 mile journey from Florida to New York.

They were cut in half and loaded by a crane onto the trucks for the journey to New York and each tray was individually wrapped to protect the soil and grass from drying out during transit, creating a microclimate.

Upon installation in New York there was hardly any test done on the pitches with a couple of practice games before Sri Lanka and South Africa played the first game on the pitch, for which the ICC rated as ‘unsatisfactory’.

The matches in New York were overseen by a team of experienced ICC match referees including Ranjan Madugalle, David Boon, Jeff Crowe and Richie Richardson.