Cricket Governing Body drops shocking remarks about ODI World Cup 2023 final pitch

The ODI World Cup 2023 has been a successful event full of upsets and thrilling matches in the tournament. All the 10 teams showed a good game of cricket in the mega event. There were many controversies with the pitches as the curators were blamed for making the pitch favourable to India. Australia defeated India in the final of the tournament. After the Aussies won many experts believed that the pitch theory hit back at the Indians. 

Now the Cricket Governing Body has given an 'average' rating for the pitches at the Narendra Modi Stadium and the Eden Gardens used for the 2023 World Cup final and second semi-final respectively. The final match referee Andy Pycroft gave the pitch rating, while former Indian pacer Javagal Srinath rated the second semi-final wicket. 

The second semi-final was played between South Africa and Australia and it was low low-scoring game as the Proteas could only score 212 with David Miller scoring a century. In the final, it was a two-paced wicket as the Men in Blue could only score 240 runs and the Aussie completed the chase by six wickets in a mere 43 overs. 

Rahul Dravid and Ricky Ponting's take on final pitch

After the final, former Australian skipper Ricky Ponting said the wicket backfired on India, "It was very, very sub-continental conditions today. A wicket preparation that has probably ended up backfiring on India to be fair." After the Board rated the pitch average Rahul Dravid was unhappy he stated after the match, "If you want to only see 350-run matches and rate only those pitches as good, then I disagree with that. You have to see different skills on display as well. If you wanted to only see fours and sixes being hit, then we have T20 for that. Why do we need anything else?"

"There are skills on display on 350 wickets also. That's fine on that particular day. But in the first few games when it spins a little bit or something happens that brings the bowlers into the game, and you start rating pitches as average, where does it leave the bowlers?"