Proposal on pitches submitted to Cricket Committee: Andy Atkinson

The ICC's pitches consultant Andy Atkinson on Saturday informed that a "12-point suggestion" has been forwarded to the parent body's Cricket Committee for the improvement of wickets across the Test playing nations.

"We had a very fruitful meeting of curators in Dubai recently where there were lot of discussions on the general standard of pitches in Test playing nations," Atkinson, who is on a personal visit to the country, told PTI in New Delhi on Saturday.

Asked to elaborate on the points discussed, Atkinson said, "The discussion was about some of the common problems that curators across the world face irrespective of whether they are from England, Australia or India. We spoke about how we can have one common solution which will help in upgrading the pitches in various countries.

"Accordingly, we have prepared a 12-point suggestion which has been forwarded to ICC's Cricket Committee. We are confident that if these suggestions are implemented, we would see further improvement in standard of pitches. At this point, I can't divulge the details of our proposal but it will be out in the public domain in the next few weeks."

Atkinson, who came to meet BCCI's chief curator Venkat Sundaram, was "very impressed" with the improvement that the Feroz Shah Kotla track has shown since that infamous India vs Sri Lanka ODI in December 2009 when the match was called off due to poor pitch conditions.

"It's amazing to find the kind of improvement that Kotla has shown over the past 24 months. The conditions have improved remarkably," Atkinson stated.

The Melbourne Cricket Ground has got a 'drop-in' pitch but the idea of portable pitches may not work in India, feels the Kiwi.

"The MCG is a multi-purpose ground where apart from cricket, rugby and soccer are also played. But that is not the case in India were the grounds are exclusively used for cricket. Also, having drop-in pitches involve heavy expenditure and also you need conditions to maintain them," he said.