Champions Trophy Preview Part 1

The tournament has already started with the qualifying matches underway – while they may hold little passing interest for most, to me they will be indicators to what to expect for the remainder of the tournament. This first preview will hardly mention teams at all – there is one other important factor to take into account, venues and why what happens this week requires a watchful eye.

The schedule of matches see only four venues used, and not exactly the famous cricket stadiums found in Kolkata, Delhi etc – the ICC Champions Trophy is being played in those well-known Indian cities of Jaipur, Mohali, Ahmedabad and Mumbai – get out your atlas because I don’t know where the fk they are. OK, Mumbai is one of the larger Indian cities but the cricket is being played at Brabourne Stadium which hasn’t hosted international cricket for years.

There is nothing sinister in the reason behind these venues – for reasons that will resonate with Kiwi readers and the Rugby World Cup fiasco of 2003, the venues were chosen as they were easier to give the ICC the “clean stadium” guarantee for sponsorship. But an important component of cricket is the pitch and how it plays, and all four venues do not have a huge track record of recent international cricket. With each venue hosting at least 5 matches, looking at how the pitch plays in early matches is important.

Before looking at each venue, also note that it is the end of summer in India and all matches are day/night games (to avoid the early morning dew, which is apparently worse than the evening dew).

MOHALI

The scene of the first qualifying match, where Sri Lanka scored 302/8 and Bangladesh 265/9. The pitch here was re-laid a few years ago and seemingly suits ODIs; even allowing for the fact the last ODI played here before this tournament saw Sri Lanka rolled for 122 just over 12 months ago – blame that on poor batting, not the pitch.

Mohali has a reputation as a batsmen’s friend ever since New Zealand scored 630/6d in the first test on the new pitch a few years ago, but I’m not necessarily buying into it. Even on good batting strips, if you play woeful shots (as Sri Lanka did 12 months ago) you still get demolished, and while the evening dew in this northern Indian city (I lied, I do know where these places are) does play a part in proceedings with the team winning the toss usually fielding first, the team fielding second does have its chance for if they can control the ball there is usually movement as the lights kick in.

My approach to matches at Mohali will be to treat the toss as even (until proven otherwise) – I don’t think there is a huge advantage either way and how the teams match up on paper will be far more important.

AHMEDABAD

Variously described as a dustbowl, low and slow, a run feast – forget about Zimbabwe’s shambolic effort here a couple of days ago (they shouldn’t even be in India), recent ODIs paint the picture:

6 Nov 05 (d/n): Ind 285/8 (50), SL 286/5 (47.4)
12 Apr 05 (day): Ind 315/6 (48), Pak 319/7 (48)
15 Nov 02 (d/n): WI 324/4 (50), Ind 325/5 (47.4)

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to work out what that means and how to incorporate it into trading on a betting exchange.

JAIPUR

I still remember Mahendra Dhoni’s fantastic 183 n.o. here 12 months ago against Sri Lanka – the only international match played at this ground for some time. Without his knock, who knows how well India would have chased down the 299 required for victory (Dhoni came in to bat after Tendulkar had gone out in the first over) and the match reports described the pitch as sluggish, lacking in pace and bounce. Despite this, slow bowlers got carted (even Murali went for 2/46 off 10). West Indies play Bangladesh here on Wednesday, and I’ll watch the match principally to see how the pitch plays. But perhaps another high-scoring ground.

MUMBAI (BRABOURNE)

Hasn’t hosted international cricket since 1995 (although England played a warm-up game here earlier this year) and is a complete unknown. From a Cricinfo article from April:

On the pitch, Dungarpur, a former BCCI president, expected a suitable contest. "The ICC's pitch expert [Andy Atkinson] was here and said the wicket was a beauty," he said.

Well, that doesn’t tell us a lot, and although England rolled their opposition for 75 in their practice match in March with plenty of bounce for the fast bowlers, we’ll need to wait for the venue’s first match on the 14th (Sri Lanka v West Indies).


So there you have it – four venues, one unknown, two where you can expect high-scoring matches with perhaps the side chasing having an advantage, and the fourth I’m going against the masses and expect a more even contest between bat and ball. While later in the week I’ll look at the teams remember who plays where (and perhaps in some matches who wins the toss) will have a bearing on the outcome of this tournament.