There were numerous concerns regarding various pitches during the June 2024 T20 World Cup, which was staged around the United States and the Caribbean. In its latest pitch assessments, the International Cricket Council (ICC) deemed the conditions at Tarouba’s Brian Lara Academy and Nassau County Stadium in New York to be subpar.
The surfaces utilised for the first two games in New York and the semi-final at the Brian Lara Academy are the main subjects of the ICC’s investigation. Early in the tournament, the pitches at Nassau County Stadium garnered a lot of criticism.
On June 3, Sri Lanka was knocked out for just 77 after struggling against South Africa. Two days later, Ireland’s performance against India was not much better, achieving only 96.
The pitches’ irregular bounce caused several injuries, including as a blow to Rohit Sharma‘s arm and strikes to Ireland’s Harry Tector and Rishabh Pant, leading former England captain Michael Vaughan to describe the surface as appalling.
Pitch evaluations were scored on ICC’s very excellent, good, satisfactory, unsatisfactory, and unfit criteria.
The track got better despite temporary work, including modifications by ICC expert Damian Hough, but it was only declared “satisfactory” for later games, like the crucial India vs. Pakistan encounter. India won this low-scoring match by a margin of six runs.
The pitch from the Brian Lara Academy was met with even more criticism. In Afghanistan’s semi-final match against South Africa, Afghanistan was dismissed for just 56 runs. Afghanistan’s head coach Jonathan Trott criticised the pitch’s unpredictability in terms of bounce and velocity, saying it was inappropriate for such an important game.
The Academy’s pitches saw a lot of low scores during the competition, with some teams getting bowled out for less than 100 runs.
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Pitch evaluations were graded by the ICC using a five-point rating system: very good, good, satisfactory, unsatisfactory, and unfit. While the outfields in New York and Guyana were rated satisfactory, several other venues, such as Kensington Oval and Providence, obtained favourable scores.
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