Cricket Pitches The Science Behind the Art of Pitch-Making—“An Integrated Pitch Management (I.P.M) Approach”

The book develops a practical understanding of the fundamental scientific principles and logic underlying the art of turf pitch preparation, measuring, analysing, and interpreting pitch surface behaviour. It’s an attempt to understand how the captains, players, coaches, curators, and groundsmen comprehend and analyse the cricket pitch behaviour (days before and during the matches) and whether the pitch behaviour can be standardised and quantified (through bench marking or forming a data-based management system (DBMS) of a pitch profile, pitch quality standards, a pitch behaviour analysis index (PBAI), or pitch behaviour forecasting (PBF) by examining or analysing its mineralogical, chemical, physical, or morphological compositions, weather variables, and different pitch preparation methods and techniques. Individual chapters in this book deal with clay mineralogy, the bench-marking of cricket pitch soils, pitch soil chemical properties, pitch soil water, pitch turf grass, pitch soilorganic matter, integrated rolling management, soil structure, and compressibility. This is an effort to decipher the impact of each and every major and minor component of pitch soil, which controls the pitch behaviour either in large or small magnitudes but acts as a critical factor in defining and shaping the pitch behaviour as a whole. Several real-life examples, pitch interviews, scenarios, and case studies as felt and observed by the curator( first author) during the preparation of various international, national, and board matches or during the construction and renovation of new wickets have been included in each and every relevant chapter so as to analyse, interpret, comprehend, and justify the theoretical science with the existing practises involved in pitch construction, preparation, or judging the complex nature of pitch behaviour. Based on findings through the DBMS, PBAI, and PQS of cricket pitch profiles, various innovative and simple methods of analysing, comprehending, and forecasting pitch behaviour have been devised that will enable one to judge and comprehend the complex pitch behaviour in simple ways.

Dr. S.B. Singh is working as a faculty member and curator at Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI)/ Jharkhand State Cricket Association (JSCA). After graduating from Rajendra Agricultural University, Pusa, Samastipur, Bihar (1989–1993), he completed his master's degree in M.B.A. Marketing from S.N.S.I.B.M., Ranchi (2007–2010), and his PhD from Jharkhand Rai University (2014–2017). The title of this PhD was "Critical evaluation of economic and behavioural analysis of some important pitches laid on conventional or traditional methods vs. scientific methods based on recent research and developments: a case study of the JSCA International Cricket Stadium vs. the Keenan Stadium". This dissertation gave him a strong reason and objective to write a book and unravel the science behind the art of pitch making among cricket enthusiasts.

As a curator, Dr. Singh has conducted several Test matches, One Day Internationals, T-20s, and many BCCI board matches since 2010. He has also cleared the curators basic certification course in 2013 and the Level 1 (2019) course conducted by the BCCI at the National Cricket Academy, Bangalore.

Dr. Singh has published several papers related to cricket pitches in major national journals. His research papers have been presented at several national conferences and at BCCI seminars.

Dr. Singh has been actively involved in teaching, training, and active research on cricket pitch construction, preparation, and behavioural analysis while curating several international, national, and domestic cricket matches conducted by the BCCI and JSCA.

Apart from teaching and research, Dr. Singh had been very actively associated with some of the most prestigious business houses, as an in-house instructor and retainer consultant. He has worked onprojects funded by the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), the Department of Science and Technology (DST-TIFAC), the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE), and the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB). With financial aid received from these and several other organizations, he has established a state-of-the-art Environmental Geotechnology laboratory in the department.

Dr. Singh founded Environmental Geotechnics and has been its Editor-in-chief. He has been ‘Editorial Board Member’ of several journals of repute. He is the recipient of several awards and is a Fellow the Indian National Academy of Engineering,  American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE).

Dr. H. B. Nagaraj graduated in Civil Engineering from S.J.C.E., Mysore, in 1986 and obtained his post-graduation in geotechnical engineering in 1991 from Karnataka Regional Engineering College, Surathkal (presently NITK, Surathkal). He completed his doctoral degree in Soil Mechanics from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, in 2000. Since 1997, he has been serving as faculty in Civil Engineering at the BMS College of Engineering, Bangalore, India. He has keen research interests in "Engineering Behavior of Fine-Grained Soils" and "Alternate Building Materials".

Dr. H. B. Nagaraj has been active in research and has published more than 40 well-cited technical papers in international journals of repute and in a few important international conferences. He is an active reviewer for most of the leading international journals in the field of geotechnical engineering. He has been a recipient of many international awards for reviewing technical papers from PUBLONS in 2027, 2018, and 2019. He has also received the Outstanding Reviewer Award from two international