This time the cricket matches in the Asian Games are going to be special not only for the players but also for Japan. India will start the campaign to defend its gold medal from the quarter-finals on September 28. Just two days later, there can be a possibility of a blockbuster match between India and Pakistan.
The matches will be played at Korogi Sports Park in Nisshin, Japan. The special thing is that this cricket facility has not been built by slightly changing an old cricket ground, but a completely new facility has been built in place of three baseball grounds. This is why the organizers got a lot of freedom from the size of the field to the preparation of the pitch.
The boundary is about 10 meters bigger than Hangzhou.
According to TOI- The smallest boundary of Nisshin will be 65 meters. That is, compared to the ground on which cricket was played in the Hangzhou Asian Games four years ago, the boundary here is about 10 meters longer.
Adam Birss, the official involved in the technical operation of cricket in the Asian Games, said that this time there was an advantage of rebuilding the ground. There were pre-existing space and infrastructure limitations in Hangzhou, but organizers in Nisshin had more space.
Pallekele’s curator prepared the pitch
Asian Cricket Council (ACC) had sought help from Sri Lanka Cricket for this. Sri Lanka put Asitha Wijayasinghe, the curator of Pallekele International Stadium in Kandy, in charge of preparing the pitch here. Pallekele is generally seen as a high-scoring ground. In such a situation, good runs are expected for the batsmen on Nisshin’s pitch also.
Korogi Sports Park doesn’t just have traditional turf pitches. Along with four turf pitches, a hybrid pitch has also been prepared. In this pitch, synthetic fibers have been used along with natural soil. This type of technology is also used in Australia and Sri Lanka.
According to Adam Birss, the pitch can be made faster with this technique. Also, due to continuous matches, the effect of wear and tear of the pitch is also less.
That is, the hybrid pitch here is not just a technical experiment, but also a way to keep the pitch in better condition between consecutive matches in big tournaments like the Asian Games. Another specialty of the pitch is the soil used in it. Local clay has been used for this. According to Birs, the clay content present in the soil will help in giving bounce to the fast bowlers. At the same time, spin bowlers also hope to get grip on the ball from this.