The Ultimate Cricket company
Cricket is a most precarious profession;
it is called a team game but, in fact,
no one is so lonely as a batsman facing a bowler supported by ten fieldsmen
and observed by two umpires to ensure that his error does not go unpunished.
John Arlott, An Eye for Cricket
There is no glory in practice but without practice there can be no glory.
Good cricket can only be played if a pitch provides consistent ball bounce of an acceptable height,
with the ball coming off the pitch onto the bat at a fast enough pace to make a lively and entertaining game.
The four key playing characteristics of clay pitches are bounce, pace, consistency and turn.
Most pitches change in one or more of these characteristics over time with the main changes taking place during the first three days of a match.
The three factors that most determine the performance of clay cricket pitches:-
• Bulli/Clay
• Pitch maintenance and preparation
• Type of grass.
The response of pitches to spin bowling usually increases over time, however, a pitch that is moist at the start of a match will show some early
turn until it dries out.
For more of these fine tips on pitch performance and responses, please have a look at our cricket pitch maintenance section.
Turf Cricket Pitches
We at Turfscape pride ourselves on our reputation for constructing new turf cricket pitches,
not only in South Africa, but also in Namibia.
Our clay cricket pitches is constructed using the highest quality bulli available in South Africa.
Read more information on our Bulli (Cricket pitch clay).
Both our high quality clay sources is extensively used throughout South Africa on school, club and international level for pitch construction and maintenance.
Our Bulli is well known to comply to all four of the key playing characteristics i.e.(bounce, pace, consistency and turn).
Coarse bulli, mixed with fertilizer is used in the first and primary layer. It's important to have a good quality course bulli for this layer, bulli with strong swell/shrink characteristics. This will provide a pitch with good bounce and pace.
It's very important to make sure that you use a clean high clay content bulli during this phase, to prevent a dead-cracked surfaces within 2 year of establishment. These clay soils must have a high binding strength (which is closely correlated with bounce and pace - the greater the binding strength the greater the pace and the higher the bounce).
Organic matter in the bulli will have a dampening effect of both pace and bounce.
All our pitches are constructed lying true North with a 1% slope for the water to drain off the pitch area.
The depth of the bulli/clay layer depends on the usage of the pitches, e.g. International Standards, Club or School standard or Practice facilities. Recommended depths range from as little as 70 mm to 150 and even 300 mm, but the upper 100 mm or so should always comprise pure bulli.
The next phase in construction is the top layering of the pitch with sifted (fine) bulli to enable us to level the pitch and to provide a fine bedding for the grass to be planted.
Turf Cricket Pitch Grass
After leveling the pitch, the grass is planted.
It is very important that all soil must be washed out of the roots and sods.
No soil or organic matter are to be mixed with the bulli.
Grass species commonly used: (specie: Cynodin Transvaalensis (Golf green).
The important characteristics of the grass you planning to use on your cricket pitch should be as follows:
(a) the grass must obviously grow well in a heavy clay soil
(b) tolerate wear well, it should have a good underground root system
(c) it should preferably also have a strong rhizome (underground stem) system since these rhizomes can play an extremely important role in binding the pitch together and in preventing cracks from opening out too wide (provided the pitch is evenly grassed).
Turf Cricket Pitch Grass
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Synthetic cricket practice areas provide an essential all weather resource for cricket players to
give them the best opportunity to develop and exhibit their skills.
We can construct these facilities in comfort of your backyard with our very durable Artificial Grass (Syncricket) to any specification, but here are some general
rules that needs to be taken into account when planning these facilities:-
Where possible the facility should be sited in a north south direction to avoid batting or bowling into the setting sun.
Avoid constructing your pitch in close proximity to trees, as the shadows in sunny conditions make the ball very difficult to see.
Buildings also create shadows and influence wind currents which may have an effect on the playability of the facility.
Base constructions:-
We make use of two methods for our base constructions.
Concrete Slab (Very rarely-NOT Prefered)
Constructing a reinforced concrete slab, usually 2m wide, 100mm thick.
The top of the concrete slab must be very smooth to prevent erratic ball bounce.
The slab is normally left for 7-10 days to cure before the preferred synthetic grass or fiber grass is installed.
Crusher Based
The second method is the construction of a crusher sand base which is stabilized to prevent disintegration or crumbling.
The crusher base has very near characteristics then to a turf pitch as it provides a solid enough base without the unexpected ball bounce that is caused by concrete bases.
The ball does tend to come through very evenly without the bounciness of that of concrete base.
The bowlers also have a much better ball control on a crusher base both in bounce and grip (spin bowling).
The edges are normally neatly covered with paving.
Synthetic grass options:-
Turfscape provide three different artificial grass options for synthetic cricket pitches:-
Oval / SynCricket
The Oval and SynCricket artificial grass have the same characteristics with little or no difference between them other than the price per m².
Both grasses must be in filled with a fine white silica sand, to control the speed of the ball coming onto the bat.
The amount of sand infill determine the pace and bounce of the ball. The sand is evenly distributed across the surface then brushed into the fibers (becoming invisible to the eye), but more sand needs to be brushed in at the crease where the batsman taps with his bat.
The grass is only glued on the perimeters and only if installed on a concrete slab.
On a crusher base, the grass is only secured on the top and bottom of the pitch, by folding the edges into the ground, and secure it with long pegs. These pegs are then covered with sand and is invisible to the eye.
The grass is perfect not only for the batsman, but also for the bowlers.
The bowler can control the swing of the ball much more efficient than on fiber grass.
For spin bowling, the Oval / SynCricket really offers a lot more grip on the ball than the fiber grass.
Fiber Grass 173
The Fiber Grass 173 (1964 - method) cannot be installed on a crusher base, thus a cement slab is needed.
The Fiber Grass must be completly glued, (complete surface), then rolled and rolled and rolled until all/no air bubbles is visible.
The disadvantage of fiber grass is where the ball is landing on the grass, it tends to make a black skeet marks (black burn mark) which does not give the ball any grip after a short while.
Wicket (crease) lines is normally painted on with a road paint that should last a season.
These practise facilities can be constructed to any number of pitches and to varying lengths of between 10 - 22 meters.
Correct maintenance procedures is fundamental to successful cricket pitch preparation.
The following factors, other than using the correct bulli/clay composition,
directly influence the performance of cricket pitch:
Moisture content of bulli
Vertical cracks develops as the pitch dries. A pitch should never dry out to the extend that the vertical cracks that do develop, extend right through the bulli.
Deep drying should rather be accomplished by a well developed root system so that the water can be extracted from the lower layers by root uptake and active grass
leaves for transpiration through the leaf system.
Fine water applications over shorter periods, more frequently, is advisable to increase water penetration up to a depth of at least 100mm as water infiltration
of clay is very slow at a rate of 2-3mm per hour.
It is important that no puddles of water should ever be allowed to form on the surface.
Pitches should be constructed with a fall between 1 – 2% , stump to stump, so that Excess water should run off the pitch surface.
Thatch
In normal conditions, grass plants should have enough leaves to produce sufficient sugars.
For the plant to grow strong and vigorous, enough light must penetrate the soil surface so that new stems can develop.
Mowing must be frequent and no more than 30% of the leaf materials must ever be cut off by a single mowing operation.
The mowing height and frequency should be varied during the growing season. Thatch built up must be avoided at all costs.
It slows the pace of the pitch. Dead leaf material should be removed regularly by verti-cutting.
Care must be taken that dead leaf material does not penetrate the cracks in the pitch profile which can add to pitch layering and prevent the bulli from binding.
Layering
Bounce and Pace is reduced by horizontal layering in a pitch.
Layering also cause shallow root development which results in uneven moisture distribution.
Layering is caused by adding or accumulated organic material in the pitch profile,
by using clay with different swell/shrinkage characteristics and by using a
vibrating roller which is forbidden for usage on a cricket pitch.
Compaction
Greater compaction leads to higher bounce and pace.
A roller of appropriate weight should be used when the bulli has reached the appropriate moisture content.
The pitch must be rolled regularly as the pitch dries out. A heavier roller should be used as the rolling proceeds.
The first light roller seal off the surface and the heavier roller compacts the deeper layers of the pitch.
Never used a vibrating roller as it causes horizontal layering.
Foot holes and bare patches
Foot holes made by bowlers and batsmen and bare patches should be attended to.
Lightly sweeping, hollowtining, top dressing with adequate resting should result into recovery of the grass stems.
If the damages to these areas are too serious, it should be replanted with new grass.
Bulli must be excavated to a depth of 50mm, filled with new bulli and re planted with washed grass sods.
Bare patches caused by fungal infection should be treated immediately.
If the grass does not recover within 3 weeks of treatment, it should be replanted.
Fertilizer
It is feasible to have a soil test done to determine the fertility shortages in the pitch profile and then
to take corrective measures.
However, in the absence of the tests, Nitrogen at a rate of at least 6g per m2(20g/ms LAN) every 20 days and potassium 10g/m2 every 20(20g/m2 kcl) can be
alternated during the growing season (middle of August to middle April) to the pitch.
Invasion
Invasion of the outfield grass or weeds into the pitch area should be prevented at all cost.
Appropriate weed killers should be applied to kill off such invasions.
Post season maintenance
Cricket pitches should not be left unattended during the winter season.
The pitches should be thinned out (verticut), hollowtined (compaction braking), fertilized and top dress with
a high qulity weed free bulli.
More Maintenance Info
Further reading on cricket pitch preparation and maintenance topics refer to following documents:-
• Reference... Principles and practice of pitch preparation
Produced under the auspices of the United Cricket Board of South Africa
Prepared by NM Tainton, JR Klug, D Edmondson & RK Campbell (University of Natal) and P W van Deventer & M J de Beer (Potchefstroom University).
• Preparation Of A Wicket
One of the icons of cricket pitch curators in Australia, Kevin Mitchell Senior, has produced an in-depth guide to preparing quality wickets.
• Basic Guide to Turf Cricket Pitch Preparation
This book was written By John Shannon (Turf Management teacher NMIT and former Premier cricket player) and is a good basic guide to turf pitch preparation.
• Cricket Pitch Maintenance
Document written by The Institute of Groundsmanship.
It is important to choose a bulli source which give good ball bounce and pace in cricket pitches.
That's why we only use the highest quality bulli / clay for pitch construction and sold for seasonal maintenance to all clubs and schools.
Make sure of your bulli source, and do not used "dirty bulli", clay with too much organic matter, as this will give you endless weed problems later during your season. (Clay taken from riveredge, and is sold as bulli)
There is another myth that you cannot use another bulli source if your pitch were build with a certain source.
This myth is directly related to customer control and it could affect you negatively money wise.
The two main properties that groundsmen should look for when choosing bulli are:
Permeability
It is important that water can pass or leach through the bulli to the bottom of your pitch, and probably to the drainage systems.
This leaching process facilitates the removal of undesirable substances such as Sodium and other salts which are delivered via the irrigation system.
Permeability is also important because it allows water to the lower soil depths to reach deep grass roots and provide a healthy binding turf.
During rolling, water has to make its way to the surface to evaporate and produce the drying and hardening process that results in a wicket surface with that illusive “bounce” quality.
Clay content
The clay content requirement varies between 50% - 70%; Remember that the higher the clay content, the harder the wicket will be to manage and the harder the surface it can produce.
Conversely, the larger the percentage of silt, the more quickly the wicket will break and powder.
The % clay content directly influence the following two characteristics of the bulli:- Cracking & Shrinking
Cracking:
Higher clay content could cause wide cracks in the pitch.
The grass on the perimeter of these cracks grow very well but insufficient air and water will reach the roots which will result in poor growth.
Organic material can also fall into these cracks causing a soft pitch with poor ball bounce.
Too wide cracks is also dangerous to the batsman as the ball may hit the edges of the cracks and deviate in all directions.
Smaller cracks stimulate grass growth as water and air penetrates easier to the roots.
Essentially these cracks allow for water to quickly wet the whole pitch, which is needed for good pitch preparation.
Low clay content will result in too little or no cracks at all with very little water penetration and results in shallow root development.
Shrinkage:
Linear shrinkage should be between 0.08 - 0.15, type of clay 2:1 swell/shrink clay.
Clay swell and shrink as the water content changes due to a clay compound
called montmorillinite that contributes significantly to the expansion and contraction properties of Bulli.
Shrinkage cause cracks in the pitches.
Excessive shrinkage will result in too wide and large cracks.
Organic matter
Less than 5% organic matter should be present in bulli.
Too much organic matter will cause the pitch to become spongy with poor ball bounce.
Defined as a slow pitch. Fine sand : 20 - 50% & Coarse sand: 0-10%:
Too much sand content in clay, do provide grip to the ball and can damaged the ball.
It also prevent sufficient compaction of the pitch.
The pitch will also deteriorate more quicker than required.
USING LOW GRADE BULLI (Dirty (River) Bulli): It is recommended that you only use bulli tested and used by credible clubs and schools for maintenance purposes such as top dressing material for your pitches.
It should have a good clay content, shrinkage and cracking characteristics.
If the bulli has a very low clay content, it will not bind together and will not swell and shrink at a correct rate.
This will cause layering in the pitch which result in low and uneven bounce.
Core hollowtining could relieve the layering effects but pitch re-construction can in cases with serious layering problems be the only means of correcting the problem.