Synthetic surfaces in sports
A majority of outdoor sports are played pitches. For football, a grass pitch is ideally used for international play. Cricket on the other hand needs a hard 22 yard box in the centre along with having a lush green outfield. And the list goes on with baseball, NFL, rugby, polo and hockey. Every pitch has to be maintained in a particular manner which is important. The pitch plays a very important role in determining things like ball bounce, whether it is easier to bowl on it or bat on it and how quick the outfield is for fielders while giving a chase to a cricket ball. The maintenance of a pitch in cricket is a science and the pitch has a few people employed to take care of it and make sure it gives ideal playing conditions on match day.
The cricket pitch is a very unique playing surface and the different types of pitches in the world lead to many different types of matches being played. The different pitches vary as widely as the countries. The pace of the pitches that matches are played on varies from being fast to medium to very slow. If we look at the way the ball bounces of a cricket pitch, it goes from medium to low and finally how consistent or even a cricket pitch is also swings from one extreme to another. There are different ideal pitches for the different types of cricket played these days. It isn't the same in football or American football because it is just grass and the only time it affects the players is when it is wet and they go slipping and sliding around everywhere.
Cricket pitch maintenance goes very scientific at times with measurements and calculations to determine the exact bounce and pace of a pitch. In 1969, Stewart and Adams developed the bounce test which was a scientific measure of how much the ball bounced on the pitch. They measured just how even the bounce was on the pitch and whether there was any difference in the way the ball bounced at different spots on the pitch. Then a scientist named Dury came along in 1978 and used Stewart and Adams' bounce test to determine the speed of the pitch. He gave the different bounce levels a value and made that equal to how fast the pitch was. He found that a pitch with a bounce test that was high was very fast, while at the other end of the scale, a bounce of a ball that was on the lower side meant that the pitch was slow. The amount of calculations that are used to determine the pace of a pitch just shows how important things like how high the ball bounces on a pitch and other factors are to the game of cricket.
An invention that revolutionised the way sports pitches were looked after was Astroturf. This invention is basically fake grass or artificially produced grass, specifically used for sports events. Astroturf was invented way back in the 1960’s by two inventors named James Faria and Robert Wright. It started out because people were looking for a way to reduce the cost and effort it took to lay down real grass on a pitch. As a result of this, Astroturf was invented and was extremely simple to lie down on a field. It was also easy to remove from a pitch; it didn't require too much maintenance and was very hassle free.
Astroturf, because of the fact that it is so much easier to maintain, install and remove than regular grass, has been adopted by a lot of major sports governing bodies around the world. This artificial surface has a lot of good qualities when we compare it to regular grass. First of all, the material is durable which makes it tougher and doesn't need constant repairs. Secondly, athletes don't slip as easily on it because it doesn't soak up much water. Finally, it reduces the shocks that players receive when they fall down because it is softer than actual grass. This surface is used in many different outdoor sports such as football, hockey, baseball and tennis. Its popularity has reached all over the world and is now even used in people's personal gardens.
Cricket, football, and many other sports benefit greatly by the use of Astroturf and other versions of artificial grass. The biggest benefit from the point of view of the stadium and pitch maintainers is that it requires very little maintenance and sometimes none at all. This reduces cost and labour time and leads to higher profits for stadiums and the clubs that play there.
Pitch maintenance is a very important aspect of many sports, especially in cricket. The variations in the pitch lead to a different level of game on the field. This interesting aspect of sports isn't regularly highlighted and more emphasis should be shown to it.
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