Galle pitch may have been doctored by curators

Efforts by curators to aid the local spinners on the third day is clearly in breach of the spirit of the game.

Sri Lankan spinner Rangana Herath and his made-to-order wicket.

Photographs obtained by the The Australian of the wicket at Galle on the third day of the recent Test match show what are obvious ­efforts by curators to aid the local spinners.

Despite the move apparently being in breach of ICC regulations, The Australian was informed last night that Sri Lanka Cricket had escaped sanction after ICC match referee Chris Broad filed his pitch report on Tuesday.

Pitch doctoring is one of the main reasons wins are becoming harder to gain on the subcontinent.

On the last day of the Test, which the Sri Lankans won in 2½ days, Broad could be seen in animated conversation with the curator in the middle of the ground and appeared to be gesturing towards the areas in front of the crease.

Photographs obtained by The Australian show an area about two metres in front of the batting crease at either end that is prepared differently from the rest of the pitch, which has more grass on it and shows less general abrasion. The practice obviously aids local spin bowlers.

It’s understood the curator scraped up the grass in this patch to remove it entirely and the area might even have been brushed with a strong broom.

The Australian team management refused to comment on the issue when contacted yesterday.

The Galle pitch was rated “poor” by Broad after the game against Australia in 2011 and action was taken against the local board.

Michael Clarke said at the time he hated to see a game decided by the toss, while Michael Hussey rated it the driest first-day wicket he had seen in his life.

In the Test that began last week, even spinner Nathan Lyon was seen in a vigorous conversation with the groundsman before the match.

Sri Lanka won the toss on ­Friday and took 20 Australian wickets with just 501 deliveries, the local spinners wreaking havoc on batsmen who struggle on spinning wickets at the best of times.

If the pitch for the second Test had received a second “poor” rating, the cricket board would face a fine of up to $30,000 as it would be the second offence within a five-year period. The Test match pitch and outfield report that Broad had to complete is comprehensive, and the Galle wicket should have raised problems.

The first item on the questionnaire asks: Did the pitch have a uniform covering of grass along its entire length?

Broad is asked to assess whether the pitch was: very good, good, above average, below average, poor or unfit.

Doctoring wickets is not a practice exclusive to Galle. At Chennai in 2013, curator K Parthasarathy admitted to “selective watering” during the match.

He kept the wicket-to-wicket line firm and rolled it while areas outside leg and off — where the local spinners land the ball — were allowed to crumble.

In a 2008 game at the ground, Parthasarathy had done the opposite, keeping the area outside leg firm to blunt Warne.

“I kept the square patches outside the leg stump, on either side of the wicket, really hard,” he said at the time.

“It was difficult to get turn from that part as there would be no rough there.

“After that game, Warne came to me and asked why he wasn’t getting the turn and others were. I told him it was because of his dodgy shoulder, that was to be operated on later in the series.”

The practice of preparing ­wickets to suit the home side is ­accepted around the world but ­tolerable limits appear to have been exceeded more often in recent times.

England has embraced a radical approach to the practice in its county cricket by removing the winning captain’s call at the toss.

Instead of a toss, the visiting captain is allowed to choose whether he wants to bat or bowl, a move that negates curators preparing a wicket to suit the home team.

Statistics reveal that teams lose twice as many matches away from home and the ratio is getting worse in modern times. The seven top nations managed just one win from 23 away Tests in 2013.