Darley president Marcus Ingvorsen has emphatically shut down any suggestion his club was at fault for a pitch that was deemed unplayable in Saturday’s Ballarat Cricket Association first grade clash with Golden Point.
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After much deliberation over the state of the wicket, which was said to be too soft to play on by the umpires, there was no play seen at Darley Park in what would have seen the Pointies resume at 1-10 in pursuit of Darley’s 200.
A frustrated Ingvorsen did not hold back in his comments, believing the umpires were too easily manipulated by Golden Point and he felt the wicket was prepared fairly.
“It’s unfathomable that they can make a decision to walk away...we just feel like if roles were reversed there would be no way that would have happened,” Ingvorsen said.
“It is the umpires’ decision...but we feel they were too easily manipulated by one of the bigger Ballarat clubs.
“I’m sick of it being a competition where there’s a couple of clubs in charge and the rest of us have to play by someone else’s rules.
“The pitch was prepared fairly and evenly and any suggestion otherwise is completely wrong.”
Ingvorsen said water was applied to the wicket after Friday night’s junior match, but that was customary to maintaining any turf wicket.
Ingvorsen slammed any suggestion that the pitch was doctored or foul play was involved, believing that even if there was a slight delay to the start of play, the teams certainly could have started at 1.30pm.
Last week saw Golden Point skipper Josh White win the toss and send Darley in to bat, which was looking like a masterstroke as the Lions slumped to 6-30.
If it wasn’t for a Roshan Anuruddha century, Darley may well have been looking at a sub-100 score.
“We could’ve been bowled out for 40 and I guarantee Golden Point wouldn’t of said ‘gee, the wicket isn’t good’ they would’ve said ‘how good are our bowlers’.”
White leapt to the defence of his club, saying his side arrived to a pitch that would not have provided a fair contest, a pitch that “you could stick your fingers into”.
White said Darley admitted some fault to the state of the pitch upon arrival and opposed any suggestion his club overrode or hijacked the umpires decision, simply voicing their opinion on the pitch that was presented to them.
White refuted any thought his side did not want to play to avoid being bundled out for a low score, six points would have seen Golden Point remain at the top of the ladder.
He said it was disappointing to not get a chance to pursue what could have been a valuable victory and felt that the pitch may well have been right to play on by 4pm, but it was unrealistic to expect his side to go in to bat at that stage – virtually being on a hiding to nothing.
“We were disappointed in the condition of the wicket,” White said.
“After a week’s worth of 25-35 degree weather, to turn up to a pitch which you could stick your fingers into just isn’t a fair game of cricket.
“They did admit to fault in preparation when we arrived and it was the umpires who made the decision not to play – not the clubs themselves.
“By the time play was called off we were made to feel like we were at fault for not playing when clearly we have not done anything wrong.
“They were both experienced umpires and we felt they made the right call in the fairness of the game.”
In January of 2016 a similar incident was seen against Ballarat-Redan.
The Combine made a complaint to the BCA after it arrived to a “sticky and wet” prior to pursuing 101 runs – it was knocked over for 48, and in turn ruled out of finals contention.
BCA operations officer Greg Wakeling said it would look into the matter, inquiring as to why the pitch was in the condition it was on Saturday afternoon despite a week of sunshine.