Most drab Test of all

The First Test between Pakistan and Sri Lanka which was played out at the National Stadium in Karachi, will go down as one, if not the most drab of Test matches in the history of the game.

And the ones who should fairly and squarely take the blame are the cricket authorities in Pakistan and the curator who did up the wicket, that killed and buried the game from the first ball bowled.

It is an unwritten law that home teams make wickets to suit their bowlers. Though not many teams would want to admit it that is how the wicket making goes.

But in this instance, the curator would probably have been given the wrong instructions and he carried it out to the very letter.

Cricket must be played on wickets that give the bowlers and batsmen a fair go. Not to do so would be to take away the competitive aspect of the game and confine it to a drab and listless draw.

And when that happens who suffers? Firstly it is the time honoured game of Test cricket which is what the game is all about. It is this type of wickets that make spectators turn their backs on the established game and rush to watch the ugly side of the game - 50 overs and Twenty20 cricket.

Test cricket is struggling and grasping for breath, what with the limited overs game strangling the established game, and when a Test is played to empty houses like what was apparent in Karachi, then it will sound the death knell of Test cricket.

It is time that countries realised that it is not the winning or losing that matters but how one played the game. If teams are going to shy away from winning or losing, then the sooner they give up the game, the better it will be, instead of insulting and degrading the time honoured and revered game of TEST cricket.

The disgrace that was the Test in Karachi should nudge the International Cricket Council from its slumber and they should make it their business to tell home teams that wickets that would bring the competitiveness and ones that would provide entertainment be produced.

The wicket at the Karachi Stadium that produced an avalanche of runs with Sri Lanka making 600 plus and Pakistan making 700 plus and with batsmen making half centuries, centuries, double centuries and triple centuries went to become a big bore.

A batsman's true class and potential is proved when he is able to make runs on any wicket, not only on shirt front wickets, but above all on uncertain wickets. The Karachi wicket was a heartbreak to the bowlers and a paradise to the batsmen.

The world's best bowler in both Test and One-Dayers Muttiah Muralitharan and the mystery bowler Ajantha Mendis looked up and down on this wicket that was a graveyard to them.

On the Karachi wicket and I had a chat with former Sri Lankan off spinning sensation and probably the most qualified on the art of preparing wickets - Abu Fuard and this is what the man who nurtured and produced the Asgiriya and R. Premadasa Stadium wickets had to say after the Karachi farce.

"I was the most qualified curator when Sri Lanka attained Test status in 1982. Even with my expertise on the preparation of wickets, I could not tell for sure how it would play.

`TV commentators would say how the wicket would play. But that is only speculation. How the wicket would play would be known only as the game progresses. Overnight according to conditions the wicket could change. The only one who can tell for certain how the wicket would be is the one above,' said Fuard who knows what he was talking about.

Fuard was critical about the Karachi wicket and queried as to what the big deal was in preparing a wicket that brought over 1500 runs and records in its process.

At the time of writing the Chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board, Ejaz Butt has decided to call for a report on the batting friendly wicket. He had also said that the PCB would try to ensure that sporting and lively wickets are prepared for international and domestic cricket.

Coach Intikhab Alam and captain Younus Khan had also criticised the wicket and absolved themselves of any blame, saying they were not aware of the preparation of the wicket.

Anyway now the damage has been done and there is no point in flogging a dead horse, but to hope that the curator would learn.

To the Test that ended in a stalemate and after the heroics of Mahela Jayawardene and Thilan Samaraweera, who both scored double hundreds, and a declarations on the second day at 644 for 5, there was no way that the Sri Lankans were going to lose and the stage was set for one of the top Pakistan batsmen to try and attempt to break Brian Lara's individual batting record of 400, with three days to bat.

Skipper Younus Khan was presented the opportunity and when the final day began with Khan on 309, and the wicket still playing like it did on the first day, every Pakistani was hoping that their countryman would enter the record books by brushing aside Lara's record. That batting legend Brian Lara too, would have missed a few heartbeats.

But that was not to be as a beauty from paceman Dilhara Fernando took the edge of his bat and rocketed to hit the off stump and that was that. When the next opportunity would knock only time would tell.

When Fernando got that wicket a colleague of mine Nalin Fernando poked fun of Dilhara by saying that the junction where Dilhara Fernando lives has been named no ball junction because the penchant Fernando has of bowling no-balls.

Nalin added even more spice to it by saying that the bus conductor shouts to those getting down at no ball junction please go forward. In Sinhala it is: No ball handiye bahina okkoma issarahata yanna. Did not everyone have a hearty laugh. But it was all in jest.

And I chipped in to say that even in the TV add where he knocks over a chair, he no-balls. These were said with no malice to Fernando who is easily our fastest bowler.