ICC Consultant Who Accused ‘Pitch Swapping’ To Oversee Preparations For Final: Report | Cricket News

What will likely be ICC pitch marketing consultant Andy Atkinson’s future was a query floating round because the burly New Zealander was nowhere to be seen throughout pitch preparation 48 hours forward of the World Cup last between India and Australia on the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. It has been learnt that Atkinson has arrived in Ahmedabad Friday afternoon and he’ll be a part of the preparations tomorrow. This comes after news company PTI had reported that Atkinson had left India forward of the ultimate.

“Andy hasn’t gone back home. He has come with ICC delegation today afternoon and hence didn’t come to the ground. He will be available tomorrow to check on the preparation of the track,” an ICC supply instructed PTI on circumstances of anonymity.

Atkinson is not precisely a favorite with the BCCI brass after he accused the host nation of adjusting observe for the semi-final between India and New Zealand from a recent to a used one.

However, the ICC later despatched a clarification that there isn’t a such rule of holding knock-out matches on a recent observe and Atkinson was apprised of the event upfront.

On Friday, the 2 senior BCCI’s chief of floor employees Ashish Bhowmick and his second in command Taposh Chatterjee, together with former India seamer and BCCI’s GM (Domestic Cricket) Abbey Kuruvilla, intently monitored the pitch preparations for the mega last on Sunday.

It could not be confirmed if the observe for use for the ultimate is a used one or a recent floor. But the 2 senior curators and BCCI GM monitored the usage of heavy curler on the designated 22-yard strip. “If heavy roller is being used on a black soil strip then the idea is to create a slow batting track where you can get a big score but you possibly can’t consistently hit through the line. 315 could be a defendable score as batting second will be difficult,” a state affiliation curator defined.

Indian skipper Rohit Sharma, together with first staff regulars KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja, had an in depth internet session, with reserve gamers Ishan Kishan, Ravichandran Ashwin and Prasidh Krishna for firm.

As has been the customized, Rohit and Dravid spent a substantial period of time wanting on the observe and in addition had intensive discussions with Bhowmick and Chatterjee.