Explainer: What, How and Why of Drop-in Pitch at Nassau County International Stadium New York T20 World Cup 2024
Have you heard of drop-in pitches but wonder how you drop your pitches? How are these pitches prepared and when and why are they initiated?
Cricket has been around as a sport for over four centuries. Change is slow to come to an age-old game. But cricket is no longer the sport it was 20 years ago.
Cricket has undergone multiple transformations in the 21st century, making it a more market-friendly, sustainable and climate-friendly sport. One such innovation is the drop-in pitch, which is used in many parts of the world.
Drop-in pitches aroused even more curiosity when it was decided that a drop-in pitch from Australia would be introduced at the new International Cricket Stadium in New York.
So, here's the million dollar question:
What is drop-in pitch?
A drop-in pitch is a pitch that is prepared away from the stadium and then transported to the stadium with the help of a giant crane at the start of the season. Once use has finished, the pitch can be removed and returned to the nursery.
The Melbourne Cricket Ground, Adelaide Oval, Perth's Optus Stadium and many other famous grounds in New Zealand use drop-in pitches.
How did the need arise? When did you start?
Multiple stadiums in countries such as Australia and New Zealand host cricket, rugby, soccer, hockey, and other sports and events on the same ground.
Cricket is a summer only sport in these countries, so other sports such as Aussie rules football, which are played in the winter, have problems using the cricket pitch as they have wicket blocks with a pitch in the middle. There is.
Therefore, a method was devised to create the central wicket block (where the pitch is) by cutting out the pitch, scooping it out, filling the remaining pit (which was first leveled with cement) with sand, and rolling artificial turf over it. I did. ) It's as grassy and smooth as the outfield.
And do you know who the famous cricket personality was one of the pioneers in using drop-in pitches?
Kerry Packer!
What connects packers and drop-in pitches?
The Australian Cricket Authority has banned big-time cricket player Kerry Packer from using Australia's major cricket stadiums. Therefore, the Packers had to use several football venues for the tournament. But how would he bring an entire cricket pitch into the middle of a stadium? To that end, Mr. Packer hired curator John Maley, who planned and executed the installation of a drop-in pitch. .
He grew the pitch indoors in a greenhouse (which allows for climate control), using perforated trays to encourage the growth of couch grass (also known as Bermuda grass) that covers the surface of the pitch. The pitch tray was then lifted from the greenhouse and trucked to the field.
Are modern methods of preparing drop-in pitches similar?
Basically yes!
Of course, modern engineering and technology has refined the processes involved in manufacturing and installing drop-in pitches.
The extensive preparatory work taking place at New York's newly built modular stadium for the upcoming T20 World Cup involves some of the pioneers in the field, making this the perfect place to get a glimpse of the drop-in preparations. It's an opportunity.
Adelaide Oval Turf Solutions (AOTS) plans to make a drop-in pitch similar to Apple's for smartphones.
Damian Hough is the lead curator at AOTS, now a full-fledged pitch consulting business. The ICC contacted him to prepare the four drop-in pitches needed for the wicket block of a modular stadium being built from the ground up at Eisenhower Park in Nassau County, New York. The challenge was to expand pitches in the United States itself, which has no clear history in cricket pitch preparation.
The pitch tray needed to prepare the pitch was assembled according to instructions from Pitch Doctor Hough. They were then shipped to the United States, where Hough team members helped assemble them in Florida.
“The reason pitch is grown in Florida (and not New York) is because Florida is the warmest region in America during the winter. New York freezes regularly and there is no grass growing at that time of year. So given the time frame we couldn't build there and we had to find the perfect climate,” Hough told Cricket.com.au.
Once the tray was ready, it was filled with a 50 mm layer of black clay soil, called “black stick”, used in baseball pitcher's mounds, which exhibit characteristics similar to Australian pitches, and rolled immediately. Ta.
This allows the tray to acquire soil properties as quickly as possible, which is very important for the quality of the pitch. I then placed the washed couch grass on top of the soil, which held the rolled soil nicely in the tray.
The pitch was then cut into sections, dug out and finally transported from Florida to the New York venue where it was installed in a pit built into the wicket block.
India will play Pakistan on that pitch in less than a month from today (May 21).
What is their true nature?
The drop-in pitch must be prepared to mimic the nature of the wicket block in which it will be placed. That's why curators are trying to use the original soil used for wicket blocks (it's easy to guess what New York's pitches look like now, right?).
But it often fails, and drop-in pitches have more or less the same result. That's why they supported the batsmen and remained intact for most of the match, unbreakable, allowing a steady pace and bounce.
Former Dutch and South Australian cricketer Tom Cooper said in an exclusive chat with Cricket.com: [drop-in] Overall, it's fun to hit. Groundskeepers know their job well and work hard. It's just as good as a regular pitch, if not better. ”
But not all drop-in pitches are good, right? What are their disadvantages?
Of course, drop-in pitches also have disadvantages.
First, despite curators' best efforts to use and prepare local soil types, most drop-in pitches are prepared in metal trays that are hard and unbreakable. yeah.
When placed in a tray, the grass will hold onto the soil better. Furthermore, as the Optus Stadium Curator states in this video, many of these trays are assembled on one pitch, so cracks in one tray will not transfer to the other tray even after assembly. There may not be.
This also leads to drop-in pitching being similar around the world, and has been criticized for being extremely advantageous to batters. However, the drop-in pitch prepared by AOTS for Adelaide Oval has been widely praised for retaining the square's original character.
Perhaps that's why they are now world leaders in this innovation.
What does the future hold for drop-in pitches?
If I had to answer in one word, it would be “bright!”
Specific temperatures and conditions are required to prepare the pitch as desired by the curator. As climate change affects weather patterns around the world, pitch preparations are also likely to be affected.
Additionally, the increasing financial needs of the game require cricket grounds to continue to generate revenue throughout the year. That requires events such as winter sports and weddings, but the pitch gets in the way.
Drop-in pitches have the potential to solve both of these problems and greatly help cricket in an uncertain future beset by global warming and omniscient market pressures.
