Last Updated on 4 years by Charbel Coorey

Kieron Pollard slams pitches as “unacceptable” | Kieron Pollard has labelled the pitches in the Australia ODIs at unacceptable & ridiculous

West Indies captain Kieron Pollard took aim at the pitches, labelling them as “absolutely ridiculous” and “unacceptable for international cricket” in the wake of his side’s 2-1 ODI series defeat to Australia.

The Windies failed to reach 200 in the series, capitulating in both the first and third ODIs to hand Australia their third-straight ODI series win. While Pollard recognised that his team weren’t up to the mark, he pointed to the fact that both sides found it difficult to bat on such pitches.

At the presentation, Pollard minced no words when giving his views on the Barbados surfaces. “Coming here to Barbados, I think both teams struggled on the pitch and I think that’s unacceptable for international cricket,” Pollard said.

“We’re not going to make excuses. We accept that we batted badly but I don’t think the scores that we have gotten in this three-match series, for two top international teams, I think that’s very embarrassing for us as a people. Coming from St Lucia to this, I think it’s absolutely ridiculous.”

Pollard then went on to advocate for his teammates, as well as better pitches in domestic cricket. He emphasised that if people want to see West Indies perform well, then the conditions should suit.

“It was plain for the world to see. If I continue going on about it, it’s going to be headlines, ‘Pollard this, Pollard that.’ That’s fine with me. But the reality is, we as players sometimes we get the brunt of the accusations and all the bad stuff. But give guys the opportunity to come and play on some good cricketing wickets.

“It goes back even to our regional cricket as well,” Pollard said. “I think as a whole we need to do better, and we as individuals need to do better as well. So we’re not going to cast blame. We’re going to accept responsibility as well. But I think as a holistic approach and holistic view to move forward.”‘

With 252/9 in the first ODI, Australia produced the only instance of a 200+ score in the series. Ashton Agar, player of the match in the third ODI, enjoyed bowling in such conditions. Contrary to Pollard, Agar hopes to see more such surfaces in the future.

At the presentation, Agar said, “It’s pretty favorable conditions for a spinner. You just had to get your length right. As long as you were hitting the stumps for the right-hander and pitching the ball to a left-hander, where it’s spinning in and hitting the stumps to bring all modes of dismissal into play, that’s all you can do and you let the pitch go to work.

“Really difficult conditions, really interesting style of cricket that was played. You don’t get many pitches like that and I hope we end up seeing a lot more like that in the future,” Agar continued.

Australia will now travel to Bangladesh for a five-match T20I series, after the tour was originally in doubt. West Indies will soon engage in a four-match T20I series against Pakistan, where Pollard will certainly be hoping for better surfaces.