MUMBAI: International Cricket Council's pitch consultant Andy Atkinson will try a revolutionary technique for improving the pitch for Friday's Champions Trophy clash between New Zealand and Sri Lanka at the Brabourne Stadium.
Atkinson is going to use a commonly used builders' glue -Poly Vinyl Acetate -- on the pitch for extra binding of the playing rectangle.
The burly Englishman has flown down here following an SOS from the ICC after the pitches prepared for the matches drew flak for their unpredictable bounce and alarming turn.
"I flew down here this morning on summons from the ICC and have seen only a few minutes of the match held between South Africa and New Zealand," Atkinson said.
"I am going to use the adhesive PVA, which is available in hardware stores to try and bind the wicket for tomorrow's match. If the trial is successful it may be tried in the final (November 5)," Atkinson said.
Atkinson explained that this technique has not been used before in India but had been tried out successfully in Eden Park, New Zealand and Old Trafford in Manchester, England.
"We will mix the glue with water. Ten litres of water will be mixed with five litres of glue and the mixture would be used on the pitch that was used in the New Zealand-South Africa game which is to be the wicket for tomorrow's match," he said.
South African captain Graeme Smith had criticised the pitch the other day as sub-standard after his team was shot out for 108 while chasing New Zealand's 195.
There have even been talks of shifting the final elsewhere if the pitches continued to behave erratically, but yesterday's nail-biting tie between Australia and West Indies, in which close to 500 runs were scored, has stopped the talks apart from ICC's own assertion that it was premature and alarmist to suggest such a thing.
