Time to pitch it up, India!

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) must be commended for their encouraging role in hosting the recent India vs Australia Test series. It is the BCCI that showed the right kind of initiative to encourage this battle, which Australia ended up losing.

It was good to hear Allan Border praise the Indian Board for their initiative before the series. On an after thought, it would have been great had it been a three-match series, and not have the one-day series that ended on wet turf.

These are great times for the lovers of the traditional and longest form of the game. Next month, the New Zealanders play a three-match Test series, which gives India a great chance to show consistency. The maximum number of Tests that India has won in a row is four. Mohammed Azharuddin's team annihilated Graham Gooch's Englishmen 3-0 in 1992-93 and then got the better of Zimbabwe in the one-off Test in Delhi.

India has a chance to win four Tests in a row yet again, when they go into the opening Test against the Kiwis at Motera, near Ahmedabad on November 4. Before the two wins against Australia in Mohali and Bangalore, India had won the third and final Test against Sri Lanka at the P Sara Oval in Colombo.

Quite simply, India also has a chance of claiming six Test wins in a row before they travel to South Africa. However, it is important for pitches in Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and Nagpur to be sporting. All-out turners against the struggling New Zealanders will help only the score line before South Africa, where the wickets on offer will be anything, but turners.

Ahmedabad has invariably received flak for providing either a flat or difficult track, but some good direction from the BCCI keeping the all-important tour in mind would help. The Hyderabad Cricket Association would do well to roll out a track, which will help batsmen and bowlers alike to compliment its fine stadium in Uppal which will be hosting its first Test.

Now, to Nagpur, the home of BCCI president Shashank Manohar. The groundsman has the biggest time advantage to ensure a more than satisfactory pitch.

Some pundits may like to see a quickish pitch, which could do more good than harm just before the Indians leave for South Africa. More than anyone in officialdom, the BCCI president should know/regret that there is no tour game before the first Test in Centurion.