Kirsten fumes over Paarl pitch fiasco

As the Northerns executive are expected to meet today to appeal against the UCB's decision to replay the SuperSport Series game early next month, the angry Northerns coach said his side deserved to be awarded the points. He also has the support of the umpires after the game was abandoned on Saturday because of the cranky behaviour of the pitch.

It is not the first time a game has been abandoned at Boland's Paarl venue. The game against the New Zealanders in December 1994 was abandoned but it is hastiest a precedent as it is the first time an A Section match has been abandoned.

Kirsten also confirmed that Northerns were prepared to continue playing the game only Boland's captain Kenny Jackson refused to allow his batsmen to face the bowling attack of Steve Elworthy, Greg Smith and David Townsend.

The Northerns coach added that umpires Wilf Diedricks and Robbie Brookes had in a report on the state of the pitch recommended full points be awarded to Northerns. This would mean the 10 points for an outright win the two for batting and four for bowling.

Not one to back away from a confrontational issue Kirsten said the only way the game can be played is to start off where we left off and at the same venue.

``Anything less would not be acceptable either to me or Gerald Dross (the Northerns captain), and would certainly not be in the interests of my side, Kirsten said last night.

``It is not our mistake. It is not our fault either but here we are being penalised for someone else's problem.

``If they want us to play the game it must be where we left off on Saturday Northerns were 273 for seven) as we were in with a good chance of winning this game.

``It makes no sense at all to replay the game, which is why I have raised the strongest objections possible known to Richard Harrison (the NCU president) and Brandon Foot (NCU vice-president). I asked them to appeal against the UCB decision.''

It is easy to understand Kirsten's frustrations. After two heavy defeats in the opening A Section matches Northerns found themselves in a strong position and the coach was confident the Titans would win the match.

What was also annoying was that the abandonment of the match meant Elworthy and Smith, who are in contention for a place in the South African squad for the test series against the West Indies were denied a chance to bowl.

``We put a lot of hard work into the practices sessions last week and it was starting to show,'' Kirsten added. ``This sort of exercise has set us back quite a bit, and we have a game against Gauteng starting on Thursday.''

Kirsten said the total Northerns had achieved would have been worth about 360 runs under normal conditions but the outfield was the slowest he had seen in recent years and the pitch ``was not great for batting but we did a good job getting the total we did''.

Part of the problem facing Boland's batsmen, it seems, was there was fear that Smith, the big Northerns left-arm seamer, would extract extra lift out of the section of the surface which had caused the erratic bounce after the pitch had been rolled before the start of play. It was a large patch and forced the umpires and two coaches to ask for an early lunch.

After lengthy a lengthy meeting the match was abandoned when it became apparent that Boland were not prepared to continue the game. Neither Henry Paulse, the Boland president, nor Kevin Bridgens, the general manager, were present at the game. They were attending a UCB transformation think tank at a Kempton Park hotel. Bridgens was, however, critical of the umpires for their decision to call off the game.

It was his feeling that repair work could have been done to the offending part of the surface. The ball and bits of the pitch were flying off the problem patch with the area moving every time the ball hit the patch.

As it is Boland face a full investigation by a UCB task force headed by Dr Ali Bacher on Wednesday.

Included in the delegation is Brian Bassoon, UCB's director of umpiring and ground inspections, Ian Smith, the UCB's director of finance and administration, and Andy Atkinson, an experienced groundsman who was once at Newlands and because of his knowledge of the Boland conditions.

Dr Bacher said separate meetings would be held with the Boland captain and vice-captain, the coach, Hylton Ackerman, the director of development, the treasurer, Bridgens, the general manager, the Boland executive.

``We are going there with an open mind and will be a report on our findings to the board within 24 hours,'' Dr Bacher added.