That's Unacceptable For International Cricket - Kieron Pollard Slams The 'Absolutely Ridiculous' Barbados Pitch

West Indies captain Kieron Pollard didn’t mince any words while lambasting at the pitches used in the recently concluded ODI series against Australia in Barbados, which the hosts lost by a 2-1 margin.

In the third and the series-deciding ODI on Monday, West Indies were bowled out for 152, which followed their 123 all out in the first match; Australia won both these games and clinched the series.

Kieron Pollard was blunt in expressing his frustration with the pitch – the same was used for the last two ODIs – as both teams found it difficult to bat; the pitch offered help to both the pacers and the spinners throughout the series.

“Coming here to Barbados, I think both teams struggled on the pitch and I think that’s unacceptable for international cricket. 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,” the West Indies captain said after the game.

“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,” Kieron Pollard added.

I hope we end up seeing a lot more like that in the future: Ashton Agar

Player Of The Match Ashton Agar had contrasting views to those of Kieron Pollard. And why won’t he? The left-arm spinner made use of the helpful pitch to return with figures of 2/31 before scoring 19 runs to complete the chase and seal the series.

Agar hopes to see such spin-friendly pitches more in international cricket.

“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 said.