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GROUNDSTAFF at St George’s Park will be doing their level best to ensure that Tuesday’s Cricket World Cup semi-final pitch is more conducive to run-scoring.
With the help of pitch doctors, Centurion Park groundsman Hilbert Smit and World Cup director of cricket operations Brian Basson, St George’s head groundsman Adrian Carter will be trying to prepare a surface that will make for easier batting for the semi-final clash between Australia and Sri Lanka or New Zealand next week.
The St George’s Park pitch has been criticised after two low-scoring World Cup games featuring Australia (twice), England and New Zealand.
“I don’t want Hilbert to help prepare St George’s Park as if it was Centurion Park because conditions are different. But I’ll be calling on his expertise and advice to see if we can get a bit more pace out of the surface,” Mr Carter said yesterday.
“And if, at the end of all this, St George’s Park is still slow at least then I can honestly say that I was open and I didn’t refuse outside help. I want them to try and help me get the best out of the pitch.
“Last year’s match between South Africa and the Aussies produced in excess of 650 runs and that was prepared by St George’s Park groundstaff. So let’s hope it’s another belter on Tuesday.”
Mr Basson said after a pitch inspection yesterday they had identified areas of concern which could be resolved with a different watering and rolling programme.
Mr Basson added that he and Smit were not in Port Elizabeth on a witch- hunt. “I must also emphasise that the reason why Hilbert and I are here has got nothing to do with any complaints from anybody. It’s not a witch-hunt at all. We’ve simply come down to have discussions with Adi (Carter) and try and get to grips with the things that perhaps went wrong and offer any assistance if we can.”
Mr Smit said: “Adi knows the conditions better than we do. But wherever we can assist we’ll obviously go the extra mile to help. We’ll be sharing some ideas of how we do it. I just believe two or three heads are better than one. We can only improve.”
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