Eye witness account of the GODOAT

For what it is worth, GODOAT stands for "Greatest One Dayer Of All Time". While I don't subscribe to that description, several other commentators have already decreed it so. Tony Greig said it, so it must be right!

India's solicitor general, Goolam Vahanvati, appointed to inquire into racial abuse incidents which happened during South Africa's tour of Australia a few months ago, was at the Wanderers when Australia and South Africa destroyed the careers of a few bowlers.

Here is his his own account of the proceedings.

In the context of that game, I wonder why no one has complained to the ICC about the nature of the wicket. In 2004, Cricket Australia registered a complaint about the Wankhede wicket where India snatched a consolation win. Ricky Ponting publicly criticized the wicket, although he was not similarly critical of a pitch at Darwin against Sri Lanka earlier in 2004 when he said

You don't want batsmen dominating the ball as much as they did last summer.

Perhaps that was because he wasn't playing in it, while he was, at Bombay!

There've only been two occasions when an international match has been called off due to a bad pitch - Indore - India v Sri Lanka and Sabina Park - West Indies v England. Both pitches were deemed too dangerous for the batsmen. How come matches don't get called off citing that the pitch was dangerous for bowlers?

No one complained about the pancakes served up by Pakistan at Lahore & Faisalabad and India at Nagpur.

Why? Because those were superb for batting. Why bother about those stupid bowlers anyway? Let them run in 30 yards and bowl. That is what they're paid for while the batsmen gorge ourselves.

Labels: australia, pitch, record, south africa