Dead wickets and Test cricket
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Sri Lanka’s first Test match against Bangladesh in Galle saw the accumulation of a bagful of runs, with batsmen from both teams cashing in on a pitch which seemed to offer very little for the bowlers. So should such an apparently defensive wicket have been prepared against a lesser Test nation like Bangladesh?
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 You can’t blame the pitch; the outcome of a game depends on the players. We needed an allround effort from the entire team, not just the batsmen. We thought that Bangladesh was a weak team and bowled poorly to them as a result. - Angelo Perera (Private sector employee) |
 Sure the pitch wasn’t great but we could have played a lot better. If Bangladesh can score so much against us then if we had played a stronger side we would surely have lost. - D. Sujan (Student): |
 Sometimes Test matches finish in three days’ time at Galle. Unfortunately last time it was a batting pitch. That’s just the way the game is. Personally I think our captain did not make anything happen with the bowlers. He did not set the fielders in the correct places and tell the bowlers how to tackle the batsmen. - Chitral Mabotuwana (Travel agent) |
 I don’t think the pitch was to blame because the batsmen played well. Wickets fell so it’s not right to assume that the pitch didn’t have anything in it for the bowlers. This was just a one-off thing where both teams got high scores; it happens in cricket. - Monish Jayahashwara (Indian tourist) |
 Yes they prepared a dead wicket but we, as the better side, should have outplayed them. That said, I think we also underestimated Bangladesh because they are a team which is really coming up and have beaten good sides. - K. Navaratne (Former banker) |
 Maybe the captain requested it because it was a team with a lot of new players. But we should not have made a wicket like that. A pitch should be at least 40%in favour of a bowler. By preparing a wicket like that, which only helps the batsman, they are killing cricket. - Neil Rajapakse (Cricket coach) |
 Yes the pitch favoured batmen but I don’t think Bangladesh can be regarded as a weak side anymore. They have proven they are as talented as anyone and their batsmen played very well. - Anoma Priyanthi (Private sector employee) |
 In Galle you previously did not get many runs scored so the curators probably thought they should go the opposite way and prepare a pitch where batsmen could play their strokes. That is not really defensive; they just wanted to make the match more interesting to viewers. - J. Ranasinghe (Three-wheel driver) |
 No we should not play teams like Bangladesh on the back foot. So a more balanced pitch helping the bowlers should have been made. That way even our young batsmen would have been tested by the Bangladeshi bowlers instead of just scoring off unthreatening balls.- K. Raymond (Banker) |
 I don’t view it as a defensive move. Galle has always been a pitch for spinners, but now Sri Lanka does not have any really good spinners, so maybe that was why they tried to prepare a pitch with a little bit in it for the pacemen and a lot in it for batsmen like Sangakkara, Dilshan and Chandimal. - Sheshan Jayawardena (Student) |
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