This is a wonderful effort by the HCA curator Chandu and his team. It helps understand how wickets are prepared and what are all the elements that go into making wickets.
To start with, to prepare wickets in new grounds or practice wickets, one should should first assess the ground for levels by a survey. Wickets should be oriented North- South with a maximum of 5% deviation.
What Is a Good Pitch
A good pitch is an even and hard surface having good grass coverage with consistent bounce and progressive wear and tear - result oriented.
T20 pitches - need to prepare 6 days prior, should offer a fair chance of chase for the team batting second, more favourable to batsmen. Can have 2-4 mm size of grass.
1 Day pitches - Start prep almost 6 days prior, see that conditions are almost the same for the duration of the match (no excessive grass cover or moisture at start of match), not provide excessive seam movement or excessive spin, even bounce, batsmen and bowlers have equal opportunity.
4-5 day Matches - start preparing 6-8 days before. Grass kept at 4-6 mm.
Day 1 - Some moisture, consistent grass cover, pitch should ease out in the afternoon, no variable bounce or excessive spin or seam movement.
Day 2 - encourage stroke play, no variable bounce.
Dy 3 - good for batting, show signs of gradual wear, bounce becomes variable with wear and tear, some purchase for spinners
Dy 4 - still conducive for batting, due to deterioration of pitch, assistance to spinners
Day 5 - deterioration of pitch, continuous wear and tear, spinners get assistance, variable bounce
Don't play on new pitches. Some matches should be played on new pitches and rested for a few days.
Key Points for Ground Maintenance
A minimum of 65-90 yards from the centre of the wicket, a slope of 1:100 from centre of wicket
Good irrigation system for continuous maintenance of ground and pitch
Good drainage system to drain water
Practice areas
Zero cutter and outfield mower, mechanised and manual roller, brush cutter, super sopper, grass cutter
Pitch cover 4.75 ft X 100/120 ft silpaulin 200 gsm (before covering we use dharis of carpets)
Stumps and ball gauge
Boundary rope with flags
Sight screen 18ft X 45 ft
Score board, cameras provision, rooms for match referee, umpires, video analyst, scorer
Pavilion with dressing rooms, toilets, chairs for players
Preparation of Pitches
Soil
Black soil - should have high clay content 55-65% with a ph of 6-7 (above 8 indicates presence of sodium), should have good hydraulic conductivity, should swell and shrink well, have cracks to allow water and air to penetrate deep and regenerate, should retain moisture and encourage grass recovery
Red Soil - clay content of 20-25%. As it is low in clay content it does not swell/shrink, cannot regenerate, has poor aeration, has to be manually aerated to allow air and water to enter, cannot retain water as it contains sandy soil. As grass recovery is poor, wicket recovery time takes long.
Wickets should not be rolled in dry condition.
Grass
In wickets only 30-40 mm of the top soil is dried by expiration, removal of balance water depends on transpiration by grass. Good and consistent grass cover is essential for quality picthes. This will ensure that 100 mm of soil profile is dried to achieve uniformly dry, hard surface.
Bermuda grass is the most favoured grass for cricket pitches. Stolons should not be thick as it affects ball behavior. Not more than 1/3 of the grass should be mown at one time.
Mixed soil wickets of red and black and red spoil wickets are doig gwell for T20 and one day matches. Black soil is good for the longer version of the game (because black soil has a character which can bulge and shrink and becomes harder as it dries which is good for multi day matches.
Because of less fertility and water retention capacity the grass survives for a longer period in black soil. In red soil due to less content of clay and more content of sand, less fertility and pitch dries faster and bounces more.
Red and soil mix is now being used.
Wicket Preparation
Now 12-13 inch depth - bottom 3-4 inches (100 mm) in two layered wicket with fine medium sand, 7- 8 inches (200 mm) above with good cracking clay soil or red and black mixed 50% each.
In 3-layer wickets we dig 12 inches - 100 mm of coarse washed sand at bottom, 100 mm of loamy sand in the middle and 200 mm of clay soil/red and black mix. The intermediate layer of loamy sand is a mix of fine sand and 10% clay (retains water and serves as a reservoir of water for grass roots)
Use 1.5 ton/2/ton/4 ton roller on the surface of the wicket, max compaction will be up to 4 inch only. After every 2 inch layer it has to be compacted by using compactor or a roller and levels have to be maintained.
Grass can be planted using basal fertilisers and planted by doubling closure space. It takes almost 30-35 days to have good coverage and growth of grass on the pitches. After uniform growth of grass on the pitch, cut grass upto 8 mm and see the watering to percolate up to 150 mm/6 inches into the pitch
After 1-2 days, heavy roller using 4-5 passes per session, brush and cut grass at 5 mm, light watering to be done before rolling again, water after every spell of rolling
after every spell of rolling see the water level and monitor moisture levels (to retain moisture use carpets or Hessians)
Spike instrument should be used for the depth of the moisture in the pitch. When spike is pushed it should be able to penetrate easily to depth of 4inch
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