Ramiz Raja, the head of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), criticised the pitch used for the first Test match against England, claiming that it is not a “good advert for cricket” and that Pakistan is still in the “dark ages of pitch preparation.”
On the first day of the Test, England amassed a world-record 506 runs on the Rawalpindi pitch. Ramiz criticised the pitch, calling it “embarrassing,” and predicted that it would take another season for the pitches to get better. “It is embarrassing for us, especially when you have a cricketer as chairman,” Ramiz said as quoted by ESPNCricinfo during the lunch break on the second day of the Test.
“This is not a good advert for cricket. We are a better cricketing nation than this,” he added.
Since Ramiz assumed control of the PCB last year, the pitch condition has come under investigation. Drop-in pitching would be introduced to Pakistan, he assured. Despite all the discussions, however, no progress has been made on this issue, and Ramiz has criticised the shipping charges from other nations as being expensive.
“We live in the dark ages of pitches in Pakistan. They are not exposed in T20 and 50 overs but they are in Test cricket. We lived in an apartheid situation where teams did not come here. Pakistan players had played 70 Tests without playing here. It is an achievement that we managed to stay afloat. We have tried everything, bringing in a curator from abroad. Pitches are the lifeblood of cricket in a country, but having said that, I have never seen batting like England’s on Day 1 either,” said Raja.