Will Hemming succeed where others failed?

Soon after landing in Lahore, Tony Hemming visited the Gaddafi Stadium. He met with the ground staff and took a long, hard look at the wickets and outfield there. If the Australian had any concerns about the state of the wickets, he didn’t show it. At least not in the videos of his visit released by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Monday afternoon.

Hemming has been hired as chief curator by the PCB on a two-year contract. The development comes after a series of failures in preparing quality wickets in Pakistan, a country long criticized for low, slow and often sub-standard and lifeless wickets by most visiting cricket teams.

Over the years, Pakistan’s cricket authorities have tried different measures to ensure making better wickets especially for international matches. There have been home grown grounds men and there have been foreign experts like the well-known Andy Atkinson. During the reign of former Pakistan Test captain Ramiz Raja as chairman, PCB also briefly toyed with the idea of importing drop-in pitches.

However, time and again, Pakistan has failed to prepare quality pitches.

This is the first time that PCB has hired a foreign curator on a long-term contract in the hope of bringing substantial improvement in the quality of the pitches.

Will Hemming succeed where others failed in the past?

It is quite evident that the task facing the Australian is an enormous one, to say the least.

Firstly, he will need completely free hand to make sporting pitches that is neither too batting friendly or too conducive for bowlers. It’s easier said than done because mostly the home team captain and coaches or the entire think-tank of the team decides what sort of surface would benefit their team.

Say if a team like Australia, which has a potent pace attack, is visiting then Pakistan will be tempted to go for low and slow wickets. That has been the practice in the past and whether it will change following the appointment of Hemming remains to be seen.

Secondly, the quality of clay and weather conditions makes it tough to make top quality wickets in various cricket centres of the country.

Thirdly, there is a lack of properly qualified and well-trained ground staff in Pakistan which will make Hemming’s job of preparing top quality wickets on a regular basis a tough one.

Hemming’s first task will be to prepare good surfaces for the upcoming Test series against Bangladesh. The two-Test series starting next month will be followed by another one against visiting England in October this year. Perhaps his more important assignment will be to prepare wickets for the elite eight-nation ICC Champions Trophy to be hosted by Pakistan in Feb-March next year.