The ICC may ban Wanderers from hosting international cricket if the field is rated “poor”

Johannesburg’s Wanderers Stadium is in danger of surviving a 12-month ban on hosting international cricket if it gets a “bad” field in an ongoing South Africa-India test.

The surface used in the second South Africa-India test has received some criticism when former Indian cricketer Aakash Chopra tweeted that there was “too much uneven bouncing” on the second day of the test match.

However, he also noted that he thought the conditions were not as bad as what was seen when India last toured South Africa in 2018. The game was suspended early on the third night as the uneven bounce increased too much while after the game. , Dean Elgar, who carried his bat with 86 losses in the 63 run loss, said the match should have been suspended.

“I am thinking [it should have been called off earlier]. On the third day, the door did not play well. Batters got hit many times. If it was time to cancel it, it was earlier, ”Elgar said. “We had an incident where we could have had an incident in Australia. People want to watch test cricket, but we are also people. We are not just going to accept shocks and accept putting our bodies in trouble. The situation could have been addressed earlier. “

Too much uneven bouncing on this surface for a 2nd day pitch. It was much worse last time… but even this is not ideal for test cricket. IMHO. #SAvInd

– Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) January 4, 2022

This pitch was rated “bad,” resulting in The Wanderers getting three points for a handicap. If the field of play receives five disadvantage points over a rolling five-year period, it will receive an international cricket hosting ban for 12 months.

The country gets one disadvantage point if the pitch rating is “below average” and three if the pitch is “poor”. According to the ICC’s Pitch and Outfield Monitoring Process, pitch may be rated “below average” if it indicates “occasional variable (but not excessive or dangerous) bouncing and / or random variable stock”, while it may be rated “poor” if it shows “excessive bouncing unevenness to any bowler at any stage of the match”.

It is likely that in its current form, The Wanderers will fall into the “below average” category at worst. According to CricViz, the surface on the first day was actually harder to hit than on the first day of the 2018 test.

Our PitchViz model uses ball tracking data to analyze field properties. The uneven bounce rate shown in Joburg is 6.5 / 10 (higher, heavier) – this is the third highest ever on the opening day of the SA test and the highest in the Joburg test. #SAvIND

– CricViz Analyst (@cricvizanalyst) January 3, 2022

South African authorities may monitor the situation nervously, hoping that conditions will not deteriorate further.