'It is the greatest bit of rubbish' - Ian Chappell on players, administrators influencing pitch preparations

IND vs AUS 2022-23: The Indian pitches have been under the scanner during the ongoing Tests against Australia. While rumours circulated that the players and administrator were influencing pitch preparations, Ian Chappell is not buying it.

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Former Australia captain Ian Chappell has come down hard on the theory of home teams making demands for a specific type of pitches in Test cricket, saying that curators should be allowed the freedom to prepare the surfaces. Chappell's comments came after the end of the first day's play in the third Test between India and Australia at the Holkar Stadium in Indore.

The hosts were rolled over for a paltry 109, and the visitors edged ahead at the stumps with an impressive show of disciplined batting, reaching 156/4 with a vital 47-run lead. "Should players and administrators tell the curators how to prepare the pitch and what sort of pitch they want? It is the greatest bit of rubbish I have ever heard," Chappell told ESPNCricinfo.

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Chappell was categorical that the 22-yard strip is the curator's domain and no one should interfere and make unjust demands. "The pitch should be left to the curator. The curator produces what he thinks is a good pitch, and then you, as players, get on and play on it. Once you have got the administrators and cricketers telling people what they think the pitch should be, you are asking for trouble," he added.

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Chappell said pitch curators should be given the freedom to prepare balanced pitches. "I don't think there is a curator alive who can say to you honestly, 'look, I am going to prepare this sort of pitch' because things can go wrong very easily," he measured. Preparing a rank-turner is the riskiest of assignments that curators get as they still determine how it would pan out, as it happened on Wednesday during the third Test.

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"If somebody says we want you to produce a turner, there is every chance it will turn out badly because, as I say, no one can predict unless they are trying to prepare a good surface that suits everybody, then I think you are risking way too much. Any player or administrator who goes to a curator and asks for a certain type of pitch should be told to go and jump in the lake," he concluded.

(With inputs from PTI)