The pitch at Indore’s Holkar International stadium, which had been termed as ‘poor’ by ICC match referee Chris Broad, has now witnessed an upgrade in its rating. Following this new rating for the Indore pitch, it is now deemed ‘below average’ and will receive only 1 demerit point as compared to the 3 demerit points it would’ve gotten with the earlier rating. How well does this translate into actual play, only time will tell, but it is surely a more balanced pitch now.
BCCI had appealed to the ICC for a change in rating
The change in rating for Holkar Stadium’s pitch has come about after an appeal by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to review the previous rating, claiming that such a harsh grading for the pitch was unwarranted.
After looking at the footage from the last test match at Indore stadium, a new ICC panel reached the conclusion that there was not ‘enough excessive variable bounce’ in the pitch that would warrant the earlier ‘poor’ rating. This is one of the reasons why authorities went on to rate the pitch ‘below average’.
