Tale of two pitches

ST AUGUSTINE, Trinidad
A sell-out crowd was an important factor in the decision to continue the World Cup warm-up matchbetween Pakistan and South Africa in St Augustine on Friday, opposing coachesBob Woolmer and Mickey Arthur said.Play was interrupted for seven minutes afterthe South Africans, who were put in to bat, expressed concern over what theyconsidered was an unfit pitch.
"Mickey and (captain) Graeme Smith both considerthe pitch unfit for play," South African media manager Gordon Templeton toldreporters.Play resumed after umpires Peter Parker and Ian Gould decided thepitch was not dangerous. South Africa were dismissed for 199.Pakistan repliedwith 200 for three in 44.3 overs to win by seven wickets.
"It was a tale of twopitches," South African coach Arthur told a news conference. "It was pretty dampthis morning and had the coin fallen the other way the result may have beendifferent."Arthur said the South Africans' objection to the pitch had beenprompted by the risk of injury."The last thing we needed was to lose a playerlike Jacques Kallis to a ball that reared up off the pitch," he said.In theend, consideration for a bumper crowd, estimated by the organisers to number5,000, carried the most weight.
"You couldn't just cancel it, it was a sold-outgame and there would have been repercussions down the line if it was calledoff," Arthur said.South Africa also struggled on a damp pitch in their otherwarm-up match, against Ireland at the same venue on Monday, and Friday's eventsmeans their batsmen could be under-prepared going into the tournament."If myinfo is right the pitches in the tournament proper will be much better than thisone," Arthur said.
"We're hoping the toss won't be as crucial in the tournamentas it was today, but it certainly looks like it will be a bowl-firstcompetition."My priority is to get players like Smith, AB de Villiers, JacquesKallis and Herschelle Gibbs into some sort of form."The problem is we need toget them into the form pretty quickly now."Woolmer concurred with Arthur thatthe crowd's interests received top priority."There was concern, because fiveballs really took off and a few went along the ground," he said.
"But there wereover 3,500 people in the ground and we felt we had a duty to continue with thegame."Pakistan have bounced back well after losing both the test and one-dayseries on their tour of South Africa this season, which did not surpriseWoolmer."This is the World Cup, this is the big time, this is where everyonehas to put in the big performances," he said.