The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is under severe criticism over the poor quality of pitch for the first Test match of the historic series at Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium. The match ended in a draw but it caught the attention of former cricketers, experts, and other officials.
Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Fawad Chaudhry, who visited the stadium on the first day of the Test match also expressed his disappointment on the slow pitch. The Federal Minister said that he was extremely disappointed with PCB and Ramiz Raja for preparing a dead surface for the historic Test match.
Fawad Chaudhry further said that Pakistan has a fiery bowling attack and he does not understand the idea behind such a surface that produced just 13 wickets in five days. It was a historic occasion for Pakistan cricket as the Australians have visited after 24 years, however, they were offered a sedate wicket in the first match.
The minister further said that he is hoping the board will offer a balanced surface for the upcoming matches of the highly-anticipated Benaud-Qadir series.
Extremely disappointed on PCB choosing a dead wicket for an historic test match,with such a furious Pak pace attack why would we need such dead pitches? Test match after 24 years and look at the pitch, hope they will give positive cricket a chance in next matches #PAKvsAUS
— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) March 9, 2022
It is to mention here that the International Cricket Council’s match referee, Ranjan Madugalle had declared the MCG pitch, offered by Cricket Australia on the Boxing Day Test match in the 2017 Ashes series as “poor” where it had produced 24 wickets in five days. And it is also to mention here that the Rawalpindi pitch produced just 13 wickets in five days.
