Feature

'This is not a cricket pitch, this is dangerous'

Was the pitch put out for the Johannesburg Test dangerous to the players' well being? The cricket world has its say

BCCI

BCCI

"Two out of 100 [is my rating for the pitch]. It's a s**t pitch. You can interpret that. They should have called it off when Vijay got hit. This is not a cricket pitch, this is dangerous. Call it off, forget it. You can't play cricket on that. I have no idea what has gone wrong but I know it's not a good cricket pitch. The last time I saw something like this, the match was abandoned - in Jamaica 1998, and it didn't even last this long."
Michael Holding, the former West Indies fast bowler and television commentator present at the Wanderers Test
"The unfortunate thing is that nobody minds movement off the surface, but it's the uneven bounce that's the problem and it is quite dangerous from a batting point of view when you have pace attacks bowling around the 140 mark, tall bowlers hitting the deck hard. It is dangerous and it's not ideal. I have seen pitches like this around the world but, as we keep saying, you want a good contest between bat and ball and this one is not providing that. I'd give it a 3 out of 10."
Kepler Wessels, the former South Africa captain and television commentator present at the Wanderers Test "
"When you have the physio coming on the field so often to attend to injuries received by batsmen on their hands and chest, we are certainly in the territory of keeping an eye on this pitch and see if it's dangerous."
Sanjay Manjrekar, the former India batsman and television commentator covering the Wanderers Test
"It's certainly not a good pitch for Test cricket. It's the worst Test pitch I've seen at the Wanderers. However, I don't think it's a pitch worth abandoning the match for. Scoreboard still reads 100 for 3 in the third innings, so there are still runs being scored. Rating: 4.5/10."
Daryll Cullinan, the former South Africa batsman and ESPNcricinfo expert present at the Wanderers Test
"It's not the ideal pitch. As a batsman you want the bounce to be consistent. The bounce on this pitch has made it unplayable for batting. [But] I think we should see how it plays for another session [after lunch on day three] before deciding on whether to call it off.
Sunil Gavaskar, the former India captain and television commentator present at the Wanderers Test
"To play test cricket on this surface is unfair. Saw it in NZ in 2003. Batsman have minimum chance. ICC should look into it."
Sourav Ganguly, the former India captain on Twitter
"Naughty pitch. Yeah, misbehaving and how. Not good for cricket. Not done, ICC must look into it."
Harbhajan Singh, the former India spinner on Twitter
"Groundsman in SA need to get together and have a bit of a chat. This is a terrible Test wicket. All we want in SA is a little movement and pace and bounce. This is ridiculous!!"
Paul Harris, the former South Africa spinner on Twitter
"This pitch at Wanderers is getting dangerous... I am quite happy sitting in my room [rather] than playing on that pile of c**p facing those bowlers! #beentheredonethat #windies"
Dean Jones, the former Australia batsman on Twitter
"It's quite a spicy wicket. No one can hide from the fact that you can get out every ball. By the same token, it's challenging as a batsman. Sometimes we get onto wickets that are pretty flat and you can score lots of runs. [Here] it is just quite difficult to bat. Whether its too excessive or not, if you ask a batsman what do you think they will say?"
Hashim Amla, the South Africa batsman after play on day two
"Some balls are up and down, so that could be dangerous sometimes for the batsman. But we are not focusing on those things right now. We feel the match is in the balance right now."
Jasprit Bumrah, the India bowler after play on day two