Cricket Pitch Patent

This post was fist published on March 26, 2011.
Cricket is a sport which originated in England and slowly spread across the world. At present more than 100 countries play cricket as per ICC rules. This gentlemen’s game is most popular among commonwealth nations but it still has to gain popularity in other parts of the world like sports such as football, tennis, etc. Cricket lovers keep organizing cricket matches at different venues to promote the game. In Aug 2009, some players including Kapil Dev played cricket on snow at an altitude of 3,454 meters above sea level on Jungfrau Mountain in Switzerland.Cricket is an outdoor game which heavily depends on the climatic conditions of a country. It could be difficult to prepare a good playing pitch in harsh conditions like snow or sand. This may be one reason which restricts many countries from playing cricket. Further, we have seen some cricket pitches which are not good enough to hold on for 5 days to play a test match. In order to overcome these hurdles, one method could be use of an artificial pitch. The artificial/unnatural pitch can be designed to provide better playing characteristics throughout the game to both batsmen and bowlers. Further, it can reduce home advantage by providing ideal pitch to both the to teams. In 2004, an unnatural (drop-in) pitch was used in a match played between Australia and Sri Lanka.A sports surface has been invented by Michael Harry Wilson Cannon. He received a patent (GB2274997A) in 1994 for his invention titled “Sports surfaces”. Michael discloses an improved grass surface in which the grass is grown in a layer of growing material comprising sand, an organic growth supporting medium and elongated synthetic fibres, the fibres being randomly dispersed as separate individual fibers in the growing material, and having an average fibre length from 5mm to 75mm. Michael employs a grass surface with improved wearing properties. Further, it has better drainage and aeration system.
Another patent (GB2353224A) titled “Artificial and semi-artificial surfaces” was granted to Keith Bailey and David Geoffrey Ellis in 2001. It discloses semi-artificial and/or artificial surfaces for leisure activities such as cricket that may be manufactured from mixtures of sand and crimped fibers, or from mixtures of sand, crimped fibers and grass. The surfaces have more stable and uniform playing characteristics when compared with conventional surfaces.
I hope with the likes of the above-mentioned inventions, ideal playing characteristics pitch could be prepared and soon cricket could be played in various parts of the world including Antarctica and the Sahara desert.
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