Home Advantage? Whats that?

In recent times,after the first India-Southafrica test match there have been some interesting comments been made. One of the articles said something along these lines,
''In the past last couple of year,right from Newzealand's tour of India, our team has not had a good record in home tests.We have won 1 test, lost 2 and drawn 4 of them. ( 0-0 Vs NZ, lost 2,won 1, drew 1 against Australia and now, a drawn test against the Proteas). India have not made any use of the home advantage...''

I was very surprised to read the two words 'home advantage'. Excuse me, Home advantage? Whats that? Its fast becoming an alien concept in our country. Its all hunky dory to just have a glance at the record, but to put things in perspective one HAS to think about the kind of pitches that were provided for these games. In the NewZealand series, the pitches at Ahemadabad and Mohali both produced huge scores in two drawn games, India holding the upperhand in the first and the Kiwis in the second but both pitches almost had nothing in it for India's spinners in the first 4 days of the game. In the Australia series, it must be admitted that the Chennai and Bangalore tracks did suit the spinners but the Nagpur wicket was a green top, suiting the Aussies perfectly.The Kanpur wicket was similar to the one prepared in Ahemadabad, plenty of runs in it but absolutely dead with nothing in it for all bowlers. With pitches such as these, its just not fair to put the blame on the Indian team for their results at home in the recent past. They have been given dead surfaces for two tests (Vs Newzealand and Southafrica) and a green top while playing Australia.

At this point, some readers may get the feeling that if spinning tracks are the only way we will win tests, then it won't be of much help when we tour abroad. I'd like to point out here that India's current captain, Saurav Ganguly holds the record for most number of away wins. Test match wins in Zimbabwe,Australia,West Indies,England were not acheived with the help of spin alone.This alone should be sufficient proof that we do have quality cricketers who can win away from India too. It is just downright stupid that when we have two of the best spinners in the world in Harbhajan and Kumble we keep preparing pitches which have no life in them.

I think its high time the BCCI discuss this issue in detail with the Grounds and Wickets Commitee. After all, why do you think people in India pour into the cricket grounds? For the curator in Nagpur who thought he was 'oh so clever' in making a point with his green top? Or for the Mohali cricket association who take pride in preparing their seaming tracks? No its because they want to watch their stars play and they want to watch Indian win. Since our strength is spin,then so be it that we play on spinning tracks at home. If the opposition wish to win in India, they should be good enough to conquer us in our conditions, like Australia did in Bangalore.The coach and the captain should be able to contact the pitch curator well before a series begins and explain what kind of pitches the team would like, and it should be followed to a T.

A spinning track can be a good cricket wicket, as the Chennai wicket has proved over the years. It does have something in it for the bowlers with the new ball. Batsman usually make big scores in the first innings, and from day 4 onwards the spinners get into the game.

There is still a game to go in this India-South Africa series, and its going to be interesting to wait and see what kind of a pitch we get there. I can hardly wait!
Karthik