The pitch dished out for the third Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test between India and Australia in Indore drew flak from all quarters.

The ball turned viciously at the Holkar Stadium in the very first hour and uneven bounce made the job tougher for the batters. As it turned out, the Test match got over in just two days and a session with Australia defeating India by nine wickets.

After the game, the International Cricket Council (ICC) rated the Indore track as “poor” and also awarded it three demerit points. Match referee Chris Broad in his report said that the pitch was not a fair competition between the bat and ball.

Now, a report published in TOI suggests that BCCI has lodged an appeal against the apex body’s verdict.

According to the ICC rules, an appeal like this is heard and determined by the ICC’s General Manager-Cricket, Wasim Khan and former India skipper Sourav Ganguly, who is currently heading the ICC Men’s Cricket Committee. However, Ganguly won’t have any saying on this as he’s from India. The ICC will replace him with someone else for this process.

As per the report, BCCI challenged ICC’s verdict on the Indore pitch after a request from the Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association.

“On March 5, we had, via an email, requested the BCCI to file an appeal (against the verdict),” MPCA CEO Rohit Pandit quoted as saying by TOI.

“As per the ICC rules, if a venue gets 5 demerit points, which continue over a rolling period of 5 years, then it cannot host an international game for the next 12 months. If we don’t get any more demerits points in the next 5 years, then we are through. We just have to be doubly cautious about a pitch when we host a Test the next time,” Pandit explained.

Spinners from both sides enjoyed great success on the Indore surface that was assisting them right from the start on Day 1, which saw 14 wickets fall. Out of the 31 wickets that fell during the whole match, 26 were taken by the tweakers.

(With TOI Inputs)