Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Improvement of Geotechnical Properties of Cricket Pitches

Abstract

Hashir Usman *,Hamza MM ,Hamid PM ,Tanveer Ahmad

This study involves research on the behavior of cricket pitches in Pakistan. Cricket pitches that are constructed in Pakistan are slow and dead relative to fast pitches of other countries. Pakistan’s batsmen who are accustomed to play on slow pitches of Pakistan sometimes feel it challenging while playing on fast pitches of other countries. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to develop fast and bouncy pitches in Pakistan so that our batsmen may not face any hindrance out there on any fast pitch. For this purpose, Nandipur soil also known as The Black soil is used because this soil is rich in clay content and clay is the main factor that yields hardness to the pitch and consequently fast speed and bounce are acquired 2 Sample pitches of 5 X 5 ft. are prepared having varied amount of silt and clay content and maintained according to prescribed standards of Pakistan Cricket Board(PCB). A number of parameters including the hardness, ball rebound, pace and the spin of each pitch are determined over a period of time to account for the effect of aging. Then computer aided analysis is carried out to represent the outcome of the research study. The tests reveal that silt content has inverse relation with the pitch’s hardness and adding more clay leads to hard, fast and bouncy pitch. All the research study is indicative of the fact that fast and bouncy pitches can be developed