'Should players and administrators be telling the curators how to prepare the pitch and what sort of pitch they want? It is the greatest bit of rubbish I have ever heard'.
Former Australia captain Ian Chappell has come down hard on the theory of home teams making demands for specific type of pitches in Test cricket, saying that curators should be allowed freedom to prepare the surfaces.
Chappell's comments came after the end of the first day's play in the third Test between India and Australia at the Holkar Stadium in Indore.
The hosts were rolled over for a paltry 109 and the visitors edging ahead at stumps with an impressive show of disciplined batting, reaching 156/4 with a vital 47-run lead.
"Should players and administrators be telling the curators how to prepare the pitch and what sort of pitch they want? It is the greatest bit of rubbish I have ever heard," Chappell told ESPNCricinfo.
Chappell was categorical that 22-yard strip is curator's domain and no one should interfere and make unjust demands.
"The pitch should be left to the curator. The curator produces what he thinks is a good pitch, and then you as players get on and play on it. Once you have got the administrators and cricketers telling people what they think should the pitch be, then you are asking for trouble," he added.
Chappell said pitch curators are not being given freedom to prepare balanced pitches.
"I don't think there is a curator alive who can say to you honestly, 'look, I am going to prepare this sort of pitch' because things can go wrong very easily."
Preparing a rank turner is the riskiest of assignments that curators get as no one knows how it would pan out to be as it happened on Wednesday during the third Test.
"If somebody says we want you to produce a turner, there is every chance it will turn out badly because as I say, no one can really predict -- unless they are trying to prepare a good surface that suits everybody -- then I think you are risking way too much.
"Any player or administrator who goes to a curator and asks for a certain type of pitch should be told to go and jump in the lake," he added.
