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The Rediff Encounter/Mike Corley

'I am not entirely happy with this pitch'

Ashish Shukla in Toronto

This man is so huge he could at once act both as cover and roller for the pitches he prepares so passionately.

Mike Corley, of Bradford in England, is back in Toronto preparing the pitches for Sahara Cup at the Toronto Cricket, Skating and Curling club -- a job that has been his for the last three years now.

"One is not used to seeing so much of sunlight in Toronto," says Corley, wiping the sweat off his puffy face. True -- it is burning hot in this usually windy and nippy Canadian city.

Corley is busy cutting the grass off a pitch-strip, which he follows up with sprinkling of water and good use of roller.

"Knock It," he instructs you, even as you hesitate to set a foot on the pitch. "No, knock it." One does. It is hard, truely hard. "I tell you, this will offer bounce and a bit for the bowlers," said Corley, reasonably proud of what he has achieved in the past three years.

"You can not make a perfect pitch at one go," explains Corley. "The first year is always difficult. By the second year you grow, which we have by 20 per cent. This year the growth is about 40 per cent."

Still, he has not been able to do what he would have really liked to in the past three years. "Given a choice, I would have dug the square and done the full job," says Corley.

" I have ploughed this area a bit," says Corley. "Around this much." He indicates with a raised arm, his pointing finger ending up at wrist-level, to indicate the depth of pitch-preparation.

"It is not much," one ventures.

"It is not, but it can't be helped. I would not blame the IMG for this. They have been very good with my requirements," he adds.

Indeed, IMG has provided Corley with the latest covers and machine-driven rollers, but the likeable, bigmade groundsman has not been able to do what he would have liked to do best.

"You see, the summer in Canada is too short," says Corley. "Once this tournament is over, the winter sets in.. and you know how bad the Canadian winter is."

What about summers? "In summers, every weekend there is a cricket match at the ground... unfortunately, we cannot do anything about it."

What it means is that between IMG and its own rules, the Toronto Cricket club is helpless. And so is Corley. "But I don't agree with the observation of cricketers last time around," Corley shakes his head in absolute conviction. "I remember the captains telling the media the pitch afforded too much of swing, that it had too much of moisture. The pitch had little moisture. Whatever moisture there was, was in the air... and last year, there was also a low cloud cover, which is why the ball swung as much as it did," explains Corley.

"I was determined to ward off this criticism. So I rescheduled the games. Instead of the last three games being held on different strips, I rescheduled them on the central strip itself. And I was proved right. There were good scores made by both the teams, in the region of 250 and more. You check the scores... nearly 500 runs were scored in these matches.

"As far as I am concerned, my primary aim is to make a pitch which produces a load of runs. I don't care if it is bad for the bowlers.. for one-day cricket is all about making runs.

"It's difficult when everyone starts writing about how the conditions are favourable for seam and spin," shrugs Corley. "Sometimes, things are not so simple."

"What I would like to see is a century made at this venue. This is something, a fact, which I am well aware of. But come to think of it, Dravid got a 90, so did Ganguly and a near-90 by Malik... there is not much difference between that, and a hundred, is there?"