stephen
Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
I always found it interesting that Pakistan and India have such different strengths. Pakistan have always had much better pace bowlers and India much better spinners. I'm not sure that this is at all to do with conditions in those countries (climatically they're right next to each other and there's probably more variation within India than there is between the Pakistan and some regions in India). I think that's more to do with cricketing culture in those countries. India basically worship batsmen, which is what everyone wants to be. So right from the lowest levels they prepare wickets for batsmen to score runs. That, combined with the heat basically makes fast bowling a much tougher prospect and so spinners develop since they're better suited to bowling long spells in 35 degree heat on low-bouncing roads.
Pakistan on the other hand supposedly play a lot of tape ball and worship fast bowlers. I know a lot less about their cricketing culture at the lower levels but they obviously nurture fast bowlers a lot better than India do. Probably the best ever conventional swing bowler (Waqar) comes from Pakistan, so the atmospheric conditions must suit swing bowling somewhat. And since nobody tours there any more it's really hard to characterise their pitches. UAE pitches are slow and low though and offer conditions relatively close to Indian conditions.
So yes, conditions are different between India and Pakistan, but both countries don't offer huge amounts of bounce. Sri Lanka usually produces roads which take turn. Bangladesh seems to do similar. In fact, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh all tend to offer wickets that favour finger spinners (low bouncing, slow turn which makes bowling wrist spin harder). The conditions aren't identical, but they're certainly very similar.
Australia and South Africa are similar in the way that Pakistan and India are similar - they both offer very similar levels of bounce. But South Africa tends to offer more seam movement for the bowlers than Australia does. To counter that, their grounds are a bit smaller. England has very different conditions to either country. They have slow pudding decks that offer a decent amount of swing. So a pure fast bowler like Starc isn't as effective in English conditions but a slower swing bowler like Anderson is extremely effective in those conditions but is a lot less so in Australian conditions.
The West Indies has sadly become filled with slow and low pitches. They used to offer fast, bouncy pitches with a bit in them but since their decline they've been offering pitches that are closer to Asian pitches in character than before.
Pakistan on the other hand supposedly play a lot of tape ball and worship fast bowlers. I know a lot less about their cricketing culture at the lower levels but they obviously nurture fast bowlers a lot better than India do. Probably the best ever conventional swing bowler (Waqar) comes from Pakistan, so the atmospheric conditions must suit swing bowling somewhat. And since nobody tours there any more it's really hard to characterise their pitches. UAE pitches are slow and low though and offer conditions relatively close to Indian conditions.
So yes, conditions are different between India and Pakistan, but both countries don't offer huge amounts of bounce. Sri Lanka usually produces roads which take turn. Bangladesh seems to do similar. In fact, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh all tend to offer wickets that favour finger spinners (low bouncing, slow turn which makes bowling wrist spin harder). The conditions aren't identical, but they're certainly very similar.
Australia and South Africa are similar in the way that Pakistan and India are similar - they both offer very similar levels of bounce. But South Africa tends to offer more seam movement for the bowlers than Australia does. To counter that, their grounds are a bit smaller. England has very different conditions to either country. They have slow pudding decks that offer a decent amount of swing. So a pure fast bowler like Starc isn't as effective in English conditions but a slower swing bowler like Anderson is extremely effective in those conditions but is a lot less so in Australian conditions.
The West Indies has sadly become filled with slow and low pitches. They used to offer fast, bouncy pitches with a bit in them but since their decline they've been offering pitches that are closer to Asian pitches in character than before.
