No funny business with Willowmoore wicket

This comes after a pitch inspection was carried out by Chris Scott, head groundsman at the Wanderers, who was sent by Cricket South Africa (CSA) to observe the troublesome strip that forced match officials to put a premature end to the fixture after just 19 overs, as it displayed inconsistent bounce that was deemed dangerous to the players.

In his report to Mike Gajjar, CSA’s cricket operations manager, Scott said that when he arrived he found a good-looking pitch.

He stated that, upon questioning the groundsman about the matter of preparation, it was found that everything had been done according to plan and there were no issues of under preparation or poor preparation.

The inconsistent and dangerous bounce that occurred during the match was put down to an unfortunate incident that could not have been predicted beforehand.

He further observed that the overall pitch table did not need to be re-laid, as it had been done recently and that the rest of the square was looking good.

Therefore, no financial penalty would be enforced on the franchise and the Knights would just receive full points for the game.

Those at Willowmoore Park will be looking to put this “unfortunate issue” behind them as they prepare to host two Ram Slam T20 Challenge matches in November, with the first match between the Titans and Bizhub Highveld Lions, on Friday, November 21, followed by the game between the Titans and Sunfoil Dolphins, on Wednesday, November 26.

With some big hitting West Indies players, including Darren Sammy (Titans), Chris Gayle (Lions) and Dwayne Bravo (Dolphins), recently signing for various South African franchises these matches promise to deliver some entertaining cricket in Benoni.

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