Upgrade: The aspect pitches have improved thanks to the injection of artificial fibres into the floor.
| Photo Credit: R.V. Moorthy
Soon after the ODI World Cup bought over final 12 months, the officers at Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA) had a dialogue with the gamers on how to enhance the practice amenities.
The gamers said that with an excessive amount of cricket occurring all through the 12 months, there was fairly a bit of put on and tear on the practice pitches, which wanted pressing consideration.
Led by Indian Premier League’s Governing Council chairman Arun Dhumal, the HPCA determined to set up 4 hybrid pitches on the sq. of the scenic venue at the HPCA Stadium in Dharamshala, and SISGrass, a UK-based artificial turf producer, was tasked with the undertaking.
Under the steerage of former England worldwide Paul Taylor, his group labored spherical the clock from the second week of March this 12 months and injected 5 per cent artificial fibres into the pure floor to guarantee the pitches have been stronger and prepared earlier than the Indian Premier League.
“During a game, your centre wicket is always protected, but the load is high on the side wickets that are used for practice sessions. So, our objective was to provide good practice wickets to the teams and that’s why we decided to use this technology,” Dhumal informed The Hindu on Monday.
“The soil binding remains the same, the quality of the grass improves and the wickets are better. With this, we can take care of any wear and tear on the surface. For now, we have used this technology only for practice pitches and if and when the ICC gives approval for it to be used in international games, we will react accordingly,” he mentioned.
The gamers from Punjab Kings and Chennai Super Kings had lengthy classes over the previous few days and in accordance to Dhumal, the gamers have been proud of the practice pitches and ‘did not even realise that there is five per cent fibre injected into it’.
According to Taylor, “We use polyethylene monofilament fibre and the fundamental thing that is different about our pitch, is that it’s still 95 percent a natural turf surface.”
