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Loading ...To be fair, I think you’d find the same problems if you tried importing soil into Australia.
The farce with Bermuda’s pitches
By Will 3 years ago, at the start of May Add your comment below
I could hardly believe my eyes reading this story today, which I then put up on Cricinfo. Brief introduction to events: Bermuda groundsmen have immense problems laying pitches. The soil is useless, due to the mass of clay in the island – so much so that batting on one of their pitches is rather like facing Devon Malcolm, without his specs, on a piece of corrugated iron. A sorry state of affairs.
But it gets worse, or better depending on your cynicism. Andy Atkinson, the ICC’s portly pitch expert, advised Bermuda to import foreign soil. This was the only solution, he said, as the natural soil was only good “for growing carrots”. A damning verdict if ever I’ve heard it. But the blind fools in their government are refusing to import this evil, alien soil due to the devastating, ungodly acts of catatrsophe which would occur as a result. I’m sorry but I really can’t take these people seriously.
“The United Bermuda Party disagrees in the strongest possible terms with Sports Minister Randy Horton’s plan to change long-standing regulations against the importation of soil,” he said on Sunday. “Most Bermudians understand the dangers of introducing alien species to this country. The cedar blight that hit our shores in the late 1940s was caused by an imported scale insect that dramatically and speedily altered the look of the island, killing off forests of our national tree.”
Now then. Before any tree-huggers attack me with seeds and fertilizer for sounding like such an urbanite, I’m sure the problems they had in the 40s were serious. But Atkinson isn’t advocating distributing the soil around the entire island, carpet-bombing the region with a blanket of new mud; this soil doesn’t have a life of its own. It’s going to be planted in a small area in the middle of a cricket ground. No islands will be damaged in the making of this pitch.
It just sums up Bermuda quite honestly. They were the most hopeless and hapless of sides in the World Cup, almost sharing that particularly plastic trophy with England, and yet are lavished with cash by their government. Millions of it, pouring into their coffers. In fact, those bally nice chaps in the government even paid for the Bermudans to watch the World Cup final, all expenses etc. It’s a wonder the ICC let them back in.
All this, and they don’t even have a pitch of schoolboy standard to play on. And they wonder why they struggle to compete…
Tags: andy-atkinson, bermuda, cricket-pitches, farce, soil |
10 Responses to “The farce with Bermuda’s pitches”
May 7th, 2007 at 1.20 am
May 7th, 2007 at 3.33 am
In fact I’m certain you would have a great deal of trouble importing soil into Australia. Unfortunately soil isn’t a dead element but is an organism with all sorts of creatures in it.
Normally you can import soil if its heat treated as this kills it off.
The bit I’m confused about is the composition. If it had lots of clay in it it would be hopeless for growing carrots but might make a good pitch, on the other hand if it was very sandy it would be good for carrots but bad for cricket.
May 7th, 2007 at 3.43 pm
The soil in Bermuda is sandy. Great for onions, bad for cricket. Imported soil would be allowed if it were sterilised but the government wants to bypass this. That would be a mistake.
May 7th, 2007 at 3.44 pm
Even one plant pot’s amount of soil can cause massive pest damage. Seems crazy, but it’s true. And once something enters a new environment, it can become impossible to eradicate, and that’s serious when it starts killing off the competition. Imagine if there’s one pregnant fire ant or worm egg in the soil. In a place like Bermuda, with its warm climate, and no natural preditors, it would thrive. Imagine a termite coming to an island where the average house price is US $1.2m.
They have this same cricket pitch problem in parts of the United States, where you’re not allowed to import soil from other states. Imagine trying to convince your senator you need the law changed for cricket.
May 7th, 2007 at 5.39 pm
Prohibitions against importing alien organisms exist for an extremely good reason, Will, so you’re full of fertiliser, if you don’t mind me saying 
May 7th, 2007 at 5.39 pm
Yes…..it appears that as far as soil is concerned…our friend Will is a Wally !
May 7th, 2007 at 11.16 pm
It would be bloody near impossible to import soil into New Zealand without a lengthy process involving a myriad of government departments and public hearings. God knows the Poms did their best to destroy the place when they arrived with exotic flora and fauna. I’m pretty sure soil can be heat treated to kill nasty’s though.
May 8th, 2007 at 8.54 pm
Plenty of compost in the sandy soil would do it, which shouldn’t be hard to find in Bermuda. But first dig a long trench, build up layers of gravel, add the top soil and use the special cricket pitch grass seed. Mow, water and roll regularly for about 50 years – perfect pitch. Where’s the problem? 
May 8th, 2007 at 11.51 pm
importing soil for a pitch.. hahahahaha.. that is nothing compared to the fuss worked up by new zealand about just dirty shoes of the indian team.. a must watch:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4908033226399646259&q=indian+team+new+zealand
May 9th, 2007 at 3.49 am
Yep, its a brave man who tries to sneak any foriegn matter into NZ. The country’s ecomony is built on agriculture so we don’t want any exotic nastys to ruin it all. Millions of taxpayer dollars have been spent eradicating pests riding shot gun with tourists. I can assure you returning NZ’ers are not exempt from this. I once had my rugby boots confiscated and steam cleaned after arriving back from the UK.
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