Gilchrist queries Lankan pitches - Sports News - Fanatics - the world's biggest events

Gilchrist queries Lankan pitches

By Michael Donaldson 14/03/2004 07:35:01 PM Comments (0)

Sri Lanka is stretching the boundaries of good sportsmanship with the type of pitches prepared so far for Australia's cricket tour, according to Australian vice-captain Adam Gilchrist.

Gilchrist questioned the practice of preparing pitches so heavily weighted towards the home team's strengths, even though the move backfired in Galle where Australia went 1-0 up in the Test series after Shane Warne and Stuart MacGill took nine wickets between them on the final day.

The wicketkeeper said if such a practice took place in Australia it would fall foul of the Spirit of Cricket charter.

"I think the Spirit of Cricket covers a wider cross section of things than verbal comments on the field," Gilchrist said ahead of the second Test in Kandy, which starts on Tuesday.

"I've asked myself that question a lot. What's right for the game? What's incorrect by way of conditions and what you serve up.

"Whether it's right or wrong I'm not sure.

"But .... that's also why you tour other countries because you have to take on these challenging conditions and different things.

"I think there still has to be home characteristics and conditions but it's certainly being stretched to the absolute extreme from what we've seen so far in this series."

Gilchrist said if the same thing happened in Australia in an effort to favour Brett Lee, Jason Gillespie and company, "there would five or six Tests in Perth and not much cricket elsewhere".

While Sri Lanka is trying to extract the best performance from its squad of spinners, led by Muttiah Muralitharan, Australia has adapted brilliantly so far - and also has two pretty good spinners of its own in Warne and MacGill.

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