Some of the regulars at Sabina Park fondly recall the days when the 22-yard-strip was a fast bowler’s paradise. With bounce and carry and a charged up West Indian pace attack, batsmen would tend to get nervous looking at the smattering of the grass on the wicket. Back then, the Sabina Park pitch was considered the second fastest in the Caribbean after perhaps the Kensington Oval in Barbados. If the Barbados Stadium has two ends named after Malcolm Marshall and Joel Garner, the Sabina Park has its share with one end named after Michael Holding and the other honouring Courtney Walsh.
However, with most pitches in the Caribbean, the Sabina Park wicket is nowhere close to being hostile that once saw the West Indies-England Test being called off in less than hour’s play.
Curator Michael Hylton admitted that though the pitch isn’t quick as it used to be, there will be bounce for the fast bowlers to extract in the second Test that starts on Saturday. In the CPL games that were held earlier, there was plenty in it for the fast bowlers. “It should play similar to CPL games. Unlike CPL games, it will not be as dry. It will have more moisture as the Test match is played across five days. On the first day, for the first two hours, there is going to be more moisture and that is the difference. Outside of it, there is going to be bounce and it will be fast.”
While the pitch was covered in the first half on Thursday to preserve moisture, Hylton said that occasional rains disrupt their plans. “As you would have noticed, the covers are still on. Even if you water overnight and roll next morning, you need to preserve moisture a little longer than you normally do. It is not like you come on the morning, take off the cover and open up the pitch. Sometimes, we get rains. We got caught out during the third game of the CPL. We thought it would be sunny, we watered the pitch a day before and we had to keep the covers on longer than we would’ve liked. That pitch had more moisture than other matches. The guys were not happy initially, but they won the match. So you have that kind of a challenge when you are not sure about the weather.”
The pitch for the second Test is expected to have a grass cover, something that former fast bowlers wants to see at Sabina Park. “We get people from time to time and speak about pitches from back in their days, particularly when it had grass on it.
“There was a time about two years back when there was no grass at all. So, they would remind us when we had the second fastest pitch in the Caribbean. They would tell us why can't we get back to being the fastest. We have gotten there and now moving forward.”
Former players who are on commentary duty or are around the vicinity come and advise Hylton on the preparation. “Guys like (Courtney) Walsh pass through, have a look at the pitch and speak to us.”
