We all loved the matches - the 872 one, and the 264 one too. Yet so few will put their hands up if asked to say a few words in praise of the groundsmen of those pitches. "It was not a fair pitch", the common refrain. These people, the groundsmen, have the only job on the ground that is more thankless than the wicketkeeper's.

What is a fair pitch? Limiting the scope of discussion to a one-day match, curators prepare one-day pitches for both teams to play on them for just one day. The surface may be a spinners delight, a paceman's dream or a batsman's paradise, as their administrators legitimately or otherwise want it to be. They just follow the orders. The weather and local factors also play a big part in their craft just as the ambient moisture does to Hoggard's. Their main duty to the one-day sport then is merely ensuring that the surface, of whatever nature, plays more or less the same for that one day. In other words, play fair.

Yet in the event of a one-sided result the pitches are sometimes blamed by players and coaches even after those have played evenly for the designated duration. And seldom will anyone from the home association care to defend their groundsmen.

ICC has proposed a new pitch monitoring process for international venues. One hopes the process works with the positive philosophy of helping preparation of fair pitches as we discussed above, rather than one that narrows its scope down to witch-hunting. A process to curb undue pre-match requests by home captains / administrators to excessively alter the nature of a pitch on the eve of a match is worth exploring though.

Inclusion of the curator in the post match conference may not be a bad idea. Poor batting or bowling will then be tougher to defend. Conversely the curator shall feel like being part of the process that is responsible for ensuring that either team gets the same conditions.

Anything to see an evenly contested cricket match....

Well done England, team work overcomes the all-Stars, and does remind us all that it is India 0-1 to Pak, India 1-1 to Pak(at home)and India 1-1 to Eng(at home)and Pak 2-0 against England at home. Don't worrry, Ind, you'll wallop the Poms 6-1 in the ODI's that's the real deal. Right?

To my way of thinking, cricket is a contest between batsmen and bowler, so a 'blissful' batting wicket that offers nothing to the bowlers is not a good cricket wicket.

Going by recent trends, forming an official "ODI Bowlers' Association" appears to be the the only way to prevent propagation of more flat tracks. They do not have the support of even the 'paying public' in their modest demand for Scott's definition of a 'fair pitch'. The only ones left to take it up for bowlers today are the bowlers themselves.

Representatives of this body can visit ODI venues along with ICC pitch monitoring team to inspect the surfaces and take it up with the authorities. Hurrah! Can this be sneaked into the agenda of the next ICC board of Directors' meet?