On Monday, March 27, 2023, the International Cricket Council (ICC) changed the rating of the pitch at the Holkar Stadium in Indore which hosted the third Test between India and Australia recently from ‘poor’ to ‘below average’ after BCCI appealed the decision.
Apart from rating the pitch ‘poor’, the ICC also handed the venue three demerit points after the match handed ended within three days.
There was an avalanche of criticism after 31 wickets had fallen inside two days with the spinners picking 26 of them. And moments after Australia scripted a nine-wicket win on the third morning of the third Test, ICC Match Referee Chris Broad had issued a stern verdict on the pitch.
“The pitch, which was very dry, did not provide a balance between bat and ball, favoring spinners from the start," the report by match referee Chris Broad had read.
After India won the Border-Gavaskar Trophy ended, the BCCI appealed and the ICC appeal panel consisting of Wasim Khan, ICC General Manager – Cricket, and Roger Harper, ICC Men’s Cricket Committee Member, reviewed the footage from the Test match.
This led to the panel deeming that while the pitch had low bounce, it wasn’t bad enough to be given a poor rating, and the appeal was upheld and the pitch was rated ‘below average’ instead.
“Having reviewed footage of the Test match, the ICC appeal panel, consisting of Mr. Wasim Khan, ICC General Manager – Cricket, and Mr. Roger Harper, ICC Men’s Cricket Committee Member, were of the opinion that, while the guidelines had been followed by the Match Referee in accordance with Appendix A of the Pitch Monitoring Process, it was deemed that there was not enough excessive variable bounce to warrant the “poor” rating. Instead, the appeal panel concluded that the pitch should be rated as “below average”,” the ICC statement read.
The three demerit points were also reduced to one demerit point for the ‘below average’ rating.
(ICC inputs)
